Philadelphia Eagles: Grading the 2018 offseason acquisitions
Corey Nelson, LB
Signed a one-year deal worth $2.25 million.
Unlike the first two moves, Corey Nelson chose to come to the Eagles. Even after his former team, the Denver Broncos matched the Eagles offer; Nelson decided he was ready for a fresh start. The Eagles have been desperate for depth at the linebacker position this past season. By the NFC Championship game, they were down to their fourth-string middle linebacker.
Although guys like Jordan Hicks and Joe Walker will be healthy by week one, the Eagles still need to load up on the position. The point of signing Nelson wasn’t exactly clear, though. Obviously, the Eagles need the depth. But they promised Nelson that he would get a legitimate shot to start this season. Well if nobody understands where we are going with this, it just seems strange because the weakside outside linebacker is precisely where Mychal Kendricks excelled in 2017.
So maybe Kendricks is moved within the next few days? Or maybe the Eagles are adding fuel to the fire of the competition between the linebackers for training camp for extra motivation. But either way, Nelson will have to earn his spot. He is coming off of a season-ending injury that he suffered early on in the regular season. So how he returns is a big question mark to the Eagles at the moment.