Philadelphia Eagles: Howie Roseman must find an upgrade at linebacker

Philadelphia Eagles fans are crossing their fingers that Howie Roseman works that magic one more time and finds an upgrade at linebacker.

Who knows how the Philadelphia Eagles‘ executive vice president of football operations, Howie Roseman, does what he does? All any Eagles fan knows is they’re glad that he does it. Somewhere there may be an enchanted land known as Oz. One day, when we find out, we’ll, indeed, snatch that curtain back, and we promise you that it’ll be Roseman, not the Wizard of Oz, sitting there.

Perhaps Jon Dorenbos and Roseman sat together and spoke of magic. Maybe Philly’s former long-snapper taught good ol’ Howie a thing or two. It’s possible. Still, method is unimportant.

What is important is the guy in the suit managed to trade up twice in the 2016 NFL Draft to get the Eagles a franchise quarterback. He’s managed to hold on to the guys that Chip Kelly brought in that were worth keeping, and he’s managed to ship off the guys that had us scratching our heads about what Chip might have been thinking.

Now, he needs to find us a linebacker.

Let’s examine Philly’s current state of affairs.

Right now, the Eagles have two proven starters on the roster, Nigel Bradham and Jordan Hicks. The latter is one of the best middle linebackers in the game when he’s healthy. There’s just one problem. He rarely is.

Hicks had injury concerns while with the Texas Longhorns. He’s only finished an entire season healthy once in his first three seasons, and once, he even got hurt getting out of a swimming pool.

Hicks’ backup is Joe Walker. He can’t stay healthy either.

Bradham is good and filled a ton of the void left by Hicks in 2017. Unfortunately, however, he’s also suspended for the first game of the 2018 season. That leaves Kyle Wilson, LaRoy Reynolds, Asantay Brown, Corey Nelson, Kamu Grugier-Hill and Nathan Gerry.

All are young. All are unproven. At most, they’ve spent most of their time on special teams. Philly’s got some work to do. There isn’t a ton on the free agent market that’s better than what Philly already has. Some teams have a wealth of riches at the linebacker position, the Carolina Panthers for instance. We’ve seen quite a few Eagles go there. Could this be the season that we get something in return?

Next: Did we forget about Rasul Douglas?

We’re sure Mr. Roseman’s on it. If we can see it, we know he can. Philly had a ton of holes last season, and look what he did. There aren’t as many question marks a year later. No one believes he’s gotten lazy or has forgotten how to do his job.

We’ll have to wait and see what happens.