Re-signing Nolan Carroll should be priority for Eagles after trading Maxwell

The Philadelphia Eagles look as if they’ll be busy once the new league year starts on Wednesday and re-signing Nolan Carroll should be on their to-do list.

They’ve already agreed to trade Byron Maxwell, Kiko Alonso and DeMarco Murray, all of whom were acquisitions in last offseason by Chip Kelly. This is a big way to start the 2016 offseason, and I’m guessing they’ll get some draft picks in return to help Doug Pederson begin building a team that fits his style. The idea of him wanting his own guys makes sense, but the fact that he’s already agreed to trade all three guys is at least a bit shocking.

Nevertheless, it looks like it will happen, and it means the team has some holes to fill for the future. The one I am going to focus on right now is cornerback, as Maxwell was the team’s top cornerback regardless of how good or bad people actually think he was. There should be opportunities to do so in free agency and through the draft, but the biggest way to help fill this hole is sitting on their own roster: Nolan Carroll.

Retaining Carroll should be a main priority for the Eagles moving forward. The coaches and players raved about Carroll going into the 2015 season and he played well until hurting his ankle against the Lions on Thanksgiving, causing him to miss the rest of the season. In only 11 games he recorded a career-high 57 tackles, adding two interceptions and his first career pick-six. His second season in Philadelphia was a clear improvement over his first after he was given a more prominent role.

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The Eagles can’t afford to dump their entire roster, and while they’ve done a great job of locking up some of their homegrown talent and other key players, Carroll needs to be added to that list. While not a total game-changer, he was a very solid and reliable player, and with two years’ experience on the team, it means they won’t have to have two completely new starters at cornerback for 2016.

It’s tough to deal with large quantities of roster turnover on a regular basis, and with how much the Eagles have had recently and will likely have in 2016, it’s good to try to keep as many players around as possible, as long as they fit. People initially thought that Carroll returning in 2016 was a question mark because of cap space issues, but with Maxwell gone, they’ll likely be able to spend a little extra money at the position.

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The even better part is that Carroll shouldn’t be too expensive either. I wouldn’t expect him to sign for any more than $3-4 million per season. A three year, $12 million deal doesn’t sound so bad to me (this is totally hypothetical of course, but it seems like a fair suggestion). They may even be able to get him for a hometown discount since he’s been on the team the past two seasons. What’s even better is that him missing the last five and a half games of the year probably decreased his value in free agency, so he probably doesn’t have a ton of prospects if he were to leave Philadelphia. The Eagles might turn out to be his best bet anyway.

Eric Rowe could then step into the other starting cornerback slot, as he was solid down the stretch for the Eagles. He struggled to cover Calvin Johnson in immediate relief of Carroll that day, but he played much better the rest of the year when he was forced to start. Going into his second season, I expect him to improve drastically.

However, if the Eagles don’t re-sign Carroll, they will be extremely thin at the position with Rowe, E.J. Biggers, Randall Evans, JaCorey Shepherd and Denzel Rice as the only guys, four of whom were rookies last year. They need some experience at the position group, and Carroll can bring not only that, but talent and accountability. He needs to be re-signed.