Eagles sign DE Cedric Thornton to a one-year deal

Cedric Thornton surrenders to his restricted free agent tender.
Tony Gutierrez/AP

The Eagles announced that Cedric Thornton signed his restricted free agent tender, which will pay him $2,356,000 in 2015. Thornton was an undrafted free agent in 2011, a year that yielded the following Eagles disastrous draft class:

Round Overall Player 
23 Danny Watkins 
54 Jaiquawn Jarrett 
90 Curtis Marsh 
116 Casey Matthews 
120 Alex Henery 
149 Dion Lewis 
161 Julian Vandervelde 
191 Jason Kelce 
193 Brian Rolle 
237 Greg Lloyd 
240 Stanley Havili 


Thornton would up being better than 10 of the players above, and a very solid starter in a front seven that improved greatly in 2014. In his first two seasons with the Eagles, Thronton played DT, but was able to successfully transition to Bill Davis' 3-4, and thrive in the new system. Thornton's biggest strength is against the run, where the Eagles gave up just 3.7 yards per carry in the last year. That was tied for fourth best in the NFL.

In 2014, Thornton had 52 tackles, a sack, 3 fumble recoveries, and two batted passes. He will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2015 season. The Eagles' other restricted free agent, RB Chris Polk, has yet to sign his tender.

Here are the Eagles' offseason gains and losses, updated in stick figure form: 


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