Philadelphia Eagles: Five Ways To Fix The Secondary

By Jonathan Page | Feb 27, 2015

Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY

Every single Philadelphia Eagles fan wants the team to improve its secondary. There’s a number of ways the Eagles will attempt to improve the secondary using the NFL Draft and Free Agency.

The Eagles secondary was a major weakness last season. Safety Malcolm Jenkins played well but both starting cornerbacks were not very good. Cary Williams had some average games but Bradley Fletcher was flat out terrible. Safety Nate Allen wasn’t as bad as a lot of people think, he was an average safety but nothing special.

Below I have broken down the five ways that the Eagles can improve the secondary and given my opinion on each one as well as the likelihood of it happening.

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I’m not choosing individual players or how the Eagles will go about replacing them as that might take me forever. However, I expect the Eagles to throw a lot of money at Byron Maxwell and look at cornerbacks Trae Waynes or Jalen Collins at pick 20 if they can’t get Marcus Mariota.

I haven’t included Malcolm Jenkins as part of this because he will be starting next season. I will only be discussing whether or not to replace Allen, Fletcher and Williams.

1) Replace both cornerbacks, resign Nate Allen

The first strategy is my personal favorite one. Safety play is appalling in the NFL, very few teams have two good safeties. Allen was ranked as the 28th best safety last season per Pro Football Focus. Whilst he might not be great, he is average and finding average safety play isn’t easy.

There’s no way Fletcher should come back and Williams would have to take a pay cut before I would even consider bringing him back. I think replacing both cornerbacks would be the best thing. I understand how difficult it will be to replace both of them but the Eagles have little choice in my opinion.

Likelihood: 7/10

2) Replace Nate Allen, keep both cornerbacks

Whilst I absolutely hate this strategy, I understand the reasoning behind it. If the Eagles were to get a stud safety alongside Jenkins, the Eagles cornerbacks would have a much easier job. Playing cornerback with two solid safeties behind can make a below average cornerback play average/above-average. Last season Fletcher was left on an island against top receivers because Allen was too slow to get across from centerfield.

However, there’s no way the Eagles do this. Keeping Fletcher who was terrible as well as Williams who is due $8m next season? No way. Also, where are we finding this stud safety to play alongside Jenkins. Devin McCourty is the only safety I can think of and he won’t make it to Free Agency.

Likelihood: 1/10

3) Resign one cornerback, resign Nate Allen

It makes sense that the Eagles will keep one cornerback, but who would they keep? I understand it sounds crazy to replace both of your cornerbacks but I just cannot see either Fletcher or Williams being resigned. Maybe Kelly just believes its not possible to get two cornerbacks and will convince Williams to take a pay cut.

Also, I mentioned earlier that being a cornerback and having two good safeties behind you makes your job easier. That works the other way round too; If Nate Allen has two good cornerbacks in front of him, he can play like a good safety I think (hope).

Likelihood: 6/10

4) Resign one cornerback, replace Nate Allen

Recent reports seem to suggest that Nate Allen won’t be back and there is a chance that Cary Williams might return. Surely he would have to take a pay cut. I can understand why Kelly would want to keep Williams but I wouldn’t agree with the move.

The more I think about it, I think this strategy is the most likely. I can see the Eagles moving on from Nate Allen and my gut feeling for some reason is that Kelly will bring back Williams.

Likelihood: 8/10

5) Replace Nate Allen and both cornerbacks

Why not? As I’ve said getting a good safety isn’t easy but Nate Allen is in no way a good safety and the Eagles have attempted to upgrade him previously. If the Eagles want to get aggressive in free agency and go after a very good safety, I’m all for it.

I also really hope we replace both cornerbacks. I know its difficult but I just do not want either of them back. Maybe last years still haunting me too much. This strategy would be an extremely risky strategy. However, maybe the Eagles need to get aggressive to stop the secondary becoming a recurring problem.

Likelihood: 6/10

Overall, I think the most likely strategy is the 4th one. I imagine (sadly) we bring back Cary Williams and replace Nate Allen and Bradley Fletcher. Do you expect the Eagles to bring someone back or to rebuild the secondary from scratch?

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