May 09, 2025
The Eagles are in the midst of a busy offseason that included losing nearly half their starting defense to free agency and trades, replacing their offensive coordinator for the third straight season, signing several free agents to one-year deals, hauling in 10 new rookies from the NFL Draft, picking up the fifth-year option on a first-round pick, handing out a lucrative extension to an offensive linemen … and a partridge in a pear tree.
But the offseason is hardly over, as Howie Roseman, the team's executive vice president of football operations, is known to stay busy throughout the spring and summer – and literally up to the first week of the season – with an eye on the current and future rosters.
Third-year center Cam Jurgens was at the center of one of Roseman’s biggest offseason moves when he and the team agreed to an extension that made Jurgens among the highest-paid at his position.
Even with the Eagles operating on a smaller cash budget than past years, their investment in Jurgens made sense given their track record of prioritizing the trenches. It also means they might not be as quick to hand out big sums of up-front money to other players who are eligible for extensions by completing the third year of their rookie deals.
Let’s take a look at who those others are and their chances of getting an extension before this season or before 2026 free agency (in no particular order):
Three years ago, the Eagles let both safeties from a Super Bowl defense (Gardner-Johnson, Marcus Epps) exit in free agency along with another undrafted success story in T.J. Edwards, one of their best LB finds in years. Epps and Edwards, in particular, signed average-market deals.
We’ve seen Roseman change his tune lately, bringing back Gardner-Johnson last offseason and splurging in March to avoid losing free-agent ILB Zach Baun, who signed the richest contract in team history for an inside linebacker. But Roseman also has 2023 third-round pick Sydney Brown and rookie second-round pick Drew Mukuba on the safety totem pole.
If he’s convinced that Brown and Mukuba will be the starting tandem in 2026, Roseman might opt for one more season from Blankenship before letting him walk. Could help him somewhat in the comp pick equation, although Blankenship isn’t likely to be a market resetter.
The wild card is Brown, who came back from an ACL repair last season but couldn’t crack the starting lineup and doesn’t play with enough discipline. If he’s not part part of the future, a better case is made to extend Blankenship during the season. But even in that scenario, an extension for Blankenship isn't guaranteed.
The Eagles already showed some level of commitment to their 2022 first-round pick by exercising the defensive tackle’s fifth-year option despite Davis playing just 32 percent of the defense – 21 percent in the postseason. Davis will be on the roster in 2026, regardless.
The Eagles need to see him develop into a three-down lineman before making any more investment in him, but in Davis’ favor is that he did show signs of an evolving pass rush over the latter part of the season, he plays a position of major priority for the team, and his conditioning/weight for the first time wasn’t problematic.
Technique and leverage were far more of an impediment than playing weight. Davis now has this season and 2026 to keep working with his coaches and developing into the force they envisioned when the Eagles moved up to draft him 13th overall. Roseman would have no issue ripping up Davis’ current deal sometime in the middle of the 2025 and rewarding him with a long-term extension to keep him away from 2026 free agency if Davis makes a major jump in his fourth season.
The lone complication could be Roseman making fellow DT Jalen Carter the highest-paid defensive player in the sport by this time next year.
In December, Dean, a 2022 third-round pick, appeared poised to become one of the team’s best draft picks at inside linebacker since 2015 third-rounder Jordan Hicks. Then came another season-ending injury, his second in as many years and in three overall seasons, in the form of a torn patellar tendon against the Packers in an NFC Wild Card game.
He had totaled 128 tackles, nine tackles for a loss, six QB hits, one game-sealing interception, four pass breakups, and a forced fumble in his breakout season. He also wore the green dot on the helmet as the defense’s top communicator.
For those keeping count, Dean’s trip to the IR marked his third in his two seasons as a starter. The other two trips were foot injuries, the latter of which also required surgery. Injury potential and an undersized frame were why the former Georgia star fell to the third round, and so far those concerns have been legitimatized. The team is hopeful that Dean can return sometime in October, but with the huge extension given to Baun and the team’s first-round selection of inside linebacker (part-time edge rusher) Jihaad Campbell, it doesn’t look good for Dean’s extension potential.
The team is also really encouraged by last year’s fifth-round pick, Jeremiah Trotter Jr., who’ll compete with Campbell to fill the role opposite Baun until Dean returns. With Baun on the books at $17 million per, can we really see Roseman giving another extension at the same position? He might’ve paid one inside linebacker, but he’s still Howie Roseman.
Unfortunately for Calcaterra, pass-catching tight ends with less-than-adequate blocking skills are dime-a-dozen in the NFL. Roseman actually signed two more this offseason, although in fairness, Harrison Bryant isn’t a terrible blocker.
Calcaterra has been a willing blocker in games when Dallas Goedert was sidelined, but his deficiencies there often get exposed in the run game. He did, however, develop a growing pass-game rapport with Jalen Hurts.
But the reworked deal that’ll keep Goedert around one more season coupled with the addition of Bryant and pass-catching-only TE Kylen Granson actually puts Calaterra’s roster spot in jeopardy. He needs to worry less about an extension and more about making the 53-man roster.
Fans will love him for the two catches for 42 yards in the Super Bowl, including a 27-yarder that was nearly a touchdown, but so many factors are working against the 16th overall pick of the Commanders who was traded to the Eagles last summer for a third-rounder and two seventh-rounders for a fifth-round pick.
First off, his 19 catches for 216 yards last year are extremely pedestrian, even for a No. 3 receiver. Also, he’s not a natural slot receiver, more of a move “Z,” which is DeVonta Smith’s position and Dotson is nowhere near Smith’s stratosphere of receiver.
Lastly, the Eagles run the ball way too much and have both outside receivers locked into long-term deals to invest heavily in a backup. Dotson's best-case scenario is capitalizing on any snaps he gets, especially if injuries hit Brown or Smith, and parlaying any of that success into a free-agent contract elsewhere next season.
Another tricky one, as Green – the 15th overall pick in 2022, by the Texans – comes to the Eagles via the Gardner-Johnson trade and will be the latest reclamation project for OL coach Jeff Stoutland, whose tutelage worked wonders last year for Mekhi Becton.
Green has all the traits to be a mauler at right guard for Stoutland if he can stay healthy, absorb the coaching and beat out 2023 third-rounder Tyler Steen for the job. If the Eagles can get Green to fulfill his promise as the highest-drafted interior offense lineman in 2022, their offensive line will once again be the sport’s most dominant – and perhaps even better than last year’s group.
Locking him up would then seem like a no-brainer except … the Eagles just can’t have all five starting offensive linemen on top-market deals. Jurgens recently as well as Lane Johnson, Jordan Mailata and Landon Dickerson as among the highest-paid linemen in the sport, which is why Becton is now with the Chargers.
An outstanding season by Green – even just a good one – would likely price him out for the Eagles, who’d then love to see Green score a major deal in free agency to help them in the comp pick equation. We’re a long ways from this discussion of course, as Green first must prove he’s a better right guard than Steen.
Follow Geoff on X: @geoffpmosher
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
