Philadelphia Eagles: Five Possible Surprise Cuts

When listening to Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly talk about Earl Wolff not practicing on Tuesday, it suddenly came to me that Wolff might not even make the team. Then yesterday, Evan Mathis was released by the Eagles. For my thoughts on why I hated the Mathis release click here. This got me thinking though, what other players might get cut before the season starts?

The Eagles have quite a lot of depth on their roster this year, meaning that it will be hard for some players to keep their roster spot. Chip Kelly is willing to take a chance on players if they perform well throughout the offseason, did anyone really expect Trey Burton to make the roster this time last year? Below I have selected five players, in no particular order, who might be ‘surprise cuts’ this year. By a surprise cut, I mean cutting someone who most people would probably expect to make the roster.

Earl Wolff

I gave this one away with my opening sentence. Chip Kelly clearly is not happy with Earl Wolff as he basically cannot stay on the field. Wolff might have some talent, but what is the point in having talent if you simply cannot stay healthy? Sadly, I do not think Wolff’s body is made for football and if he can’t stay healthy for at least the majority of training camp and preseason, I do not think he will be on the opening day roster.

Many Eagles fans are so desperate for good safety play that they can overrate average play, I certainly have done this in the past with Nate Allen. I think this happened at times last year with Malcolm Jenkins and its certainly happened with Earl Wolff. When on the field last year, Wolff sadly didn’t look very good at all.

Najee Goode

Some of the hype that Najee Goode gets is very confusing to me. Good is essentially a 5th round pick, coming off a torn pectoral muscle and he’s yet to play 200 snaps his entire career. He hasn’t exactly done a lot so far to prove he deserves a place on the roster.

Last year the Eagles kept four inside linebackers on the roster and a total of nine linebackers. The Eagles already have four inside linebackers who are pretty much guaranteed to make the roster – DeMeco Ryans, Kiko Alonso, Mychal Kendricks and Jordan Hicks. Brad Jones will probably also make the roster over Goode and maybe even Emmanuel Acho. I can’t see how Goode makes the roster.

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Jaylen Watkins

Just two weeks ago, I was expecting Jaylen Watkins to be the starting safety alongside Jenkins. Now I don’t think he’ll make the roster. It appears that Watkins is playing mainly at cornerback and not safety as Walter Thurmond looks set to start at safety. The Eagles have four cornerbacks who will definitely make the team ahead of Watkins: Byron Maxwell, Eric Rowe, Brandon Boykin and Nolan Carroll. Watkins will compete with JaCorey Shepherd and Randall Evans. Last year they only kept five cornerbacks.

Even if Watkins plays safety, I could see both him and Wolff being cut. The Eagles kept four safeties last year. Assuming they do the same, I expect those four to be Malcolm Jenkins, Walter Thurmond, Chris Prosinski and Chris Maragos. I can’t see Watkins beating them out.

Taylor Hart

This would genuinely really surprise me. Chip is a big fan of Hart and he admitted that he wanted to take him in the fourth round last year. Last year the Eagles kept seven defensive lineman and nine linebackers. I think there’s a good chance the Eagles keep ten linebackers this year and therefore only six defensive lineman.

If they do only keep six defensive lineman, the final position will be between Taylor Hart, Brandon Bair and Brian Mihalik. I do expect Hart to be the sixth and final defensive lineman to make the roster but if Hart shows absolutely nothing in training camp, maybe he loses his position to either Bair or Mihalik. Mihalik certainly has the size that Chip wants, standing at six foot nine and two hundred and ninety pounds.

Matt Barkley

Whilst Matt Barkley may not be a very good quarterback, you would have to be exceptionally bad to lose a quarterback battle to Tim Tebow. I do not think Barkley is that bad and I do not think Tebow is at all good. However, I just have this strange feeling that Tebow is going to make the final roster.

I think any team in the NFL has very little chance of success if they have to start their third choice quarterback. I guess at least with Tebow, Chip can just attempt to run the read option and throw screen passes all game. I think Chip wants athletes on his team and he might attempt to use Tebow on some two point conversion plays. Who knows what Chip is actually thinking but I wouldn’t be surprised if Tebow makes the team.

Next: Eagles Should Not Have Cut Evan Mathis

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