Roster Work

Free agency officially begins at 4 p.m. on March 13. Until then, teams can only sign players who are currently available. The Eagles decided to make such a move this week.

Compensation update: Outside linebacker Julian Okwara signed a one-year deal worth up to $2.675 million with the Philadelphia Eagles.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 15, 2024

Who?

The Eagles signed OLB Julian Okwara.

Okwara was a third-round pick out of Notre Dame back in 2020. In four seasons with the Lions, Okwara played in 38 games and had 9 sacks.

— Dave Zangaro (@DZangaroNBCS) February 14, 2024

Good teams need depth. Okwara can help the Eagles at edge rusher. He’s not a future starter, but can be part of a good pass rushing rotation. Okwara is 6-4, 239 so he’s got more of a LB build than a DE. The fact the Eagles are giving him more than the minimum tells you this is a player they wanted and think has a realistic shot of making the team and contributing.

Obviously Okwara won’t be guaranteed anything. He’ll have to win a roster spot and earn any playing time. This is a low risk move with limited upside, but it makes good sense. The upcoming draft doesn’t appear to have great depth so you need to find players anywhere you can. Okwara isn’t anything special. All 32 teams had the chance to sign him. The Eagles either made the best offer or the only offer. We’ll have to find that out over time. Still, this is a player they wanted.

*****

This is interesting.

In 2018, Eddie Jackson was first team All-Pro for the Bears, a major part of what was arguably Vic Fangio’s best ever defense. Not the same player now, but wouldn’t be surprising if Fangio is interested in a reunion. https://t.co/663AnT1k7m

— Deniz Selman (@denizselman33) February 16, 2024

Jackson was due to make $12M this year so the Bears cut him. He turned 30 in December and isn’t the same guy who made the Pro Bowl in 2018 and 2019, but could be a good fit for the Eagles.

Reed Blankenship is a starting safety. Sydney Brown looks like he could be a starting safety, but is coming off a torn ACL. He’ll miss most of 2024. The Eagles could use a place-holder. Jackson knows Fangio’s scheme and could be a good fit as a band-aid for the upcoming season. He is coming off the least productive season of his career, though, so he’s hardly someone to get excited about.

The Eagles will add another young safety, whether as a mid-round pick or UDFA. Jackson would have value in helping to tutor the young guys in how to play Fangio’s scheme and how to deal with Fangio himself.

*****

Speaking of Fangio, here is an interesting piece on him from a former player’s perspective.

“I think that the gripe from the guys — it’s not that they don’t like (Fangio),” Quintin Demps, who played his first two seasons (2008-09) with the Eagles, told NJ Advance Media. “It’s just that they don’t like the demand. His meetings are long. It’s just a day and time now where like, ‘Do we need to meet this long and go over this?’ I doubt guys dislike him personally. It’s more so about how he’s old school about going about his business. He’s a great human being, but he is stuck in his ways, right? He’s an older coach, a veteran coach, got some swag. But I think if he can just adjust a little bit to the times, man, he would really, really get a defense to buy in again.” Demps said he was also “stuck in his ways” when Fangio introduced unfamiliar concepts to him that he didn’t want to learn as a 10-year veteran. But after reflecting, Demps wishes he could go back and embrace his former coordinator, whom he described as a “genius” and very detailed.

It will be interesting to see how Fangio and Nick Sirianni mesh. Fangio is an old school grinder. Sirianni is a grinder as well, but also embraces modern players. He is willing to dial back things to try and accomodate what works well with players these days. To be fair, Demps played for Fangio back in 2017. That was a while ago so we don’t know how much has changed since then.

I personally don’t care if Fangio forces the players to eat veggie burgers, drink non-alcoholic beer and watch Megaforce all day as long as he can build a good defense. Suffering through 2023 was miserable. Give me a good defense at all costs.

Even this.

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