Good article Les. Besides the $ I’m sure Sweat and Williams wanted more snaps also and probably a reason for their stats this year. Not resigning Rogers was malpractice.

I thought not signing Rogers was malpractice as well, but I not only saw him get beaten badly against the Eagles, I saw it again last week.

I look at this as a pick your poison look at the future.

Do you pay Sweat and Williams and then how do you accomplish paying Carter, Mitchell, Dejean, Dean, Campbell knowing also you HAD to sign Baun. Also after picking up the 5th year option on Davis who turns out is having his best season do you extend him.
Kind of an embarrassment of riches and I am glad I don’t have to make the decisions.

Slay we all knew was done. Rodgers I will agree would have been the better choice for CB2 but let’s not make him out to be Sauce Gardner or Patrick Surtain.

Didn’t you kind of think once Becton left Stout that this would happen?

Great stuff as always, Les. I think, even with hindsight, re-signing Sweat at the absolute peak of his value is not a bet I would have made. He is still on the right side of 30, has prototypical size, and had just come off the best single game of his career on the biggest stage in the sport. I think he was inevitably going to leave and with the young guys they have to pay in the next few years, I did not blame Howie for moving on. As for Milton, my sense just as someone who follows as a fan is that Howie tried to pursue an extension with him, but he/his agent were pretty set on reaching the open market, and it’s easy to understand why.

I think there was one major mistake this offseason, which is what everyone else is saying here in the comments. Letting Isaiah Rodgers walk was an obvious mistake in the moment that is more magnified as time has gone on. I was certain he would come back and fill Slay’s starting spot and could not believe they let him go for that low of a price. Now, I don’t think he is as good as he has looked at times for Minnesota or as bad as he looked against the Birds, but he would have provided baseline competency, at a minimum, for a #2 corner.

I am also curious about whether this year was the right year for the Eagles to end their streak of not selecting an off-ball LB in the first round. Jihaad is already awesome and ahead of the curve, but I think adding another young edge rusher with that first pick might have been prudent considering their investment in Baun. Time will tell and when Jihaad makes his first All-Pro team in 2027, I’m sure I will feel foolish about this one.

Sure, the Birds would have loved to have Sweat and Williams back, possibly Becton as well. But at what cost? They couldn’t afford to sign either of those guys. Would you have preferred they let Baun walk? Also, this Rodgers obsession is coming off his play from the first two weeks of the season, since Week 3 or 4 he’s been a disaster.

Such is life as Super Bowl champions….Sweat and Williams got paid (and good for them). They gambled on Ringo and lost (badly). Nolan Smith got dinged up. Now Howie made some moves to patch that up, but will it work? 🤷‍♂️

Eagles roster is still very high in talent and as long as they keep hitting on their draft picks (picking mostly studs from the SEC and Big 10), they’ll remain an NFL juggernaut.