Why couldn’t the Philadelphia Eagles promise Chris Long his previous role?
Chris Long would only return to the Philadelphia Eagles if he had his 2018 role back. Unfortunately, they couldn’t make any promises.
On a random Saturday night before the week of OTAs, the Philadelphia Eagles have been made aware of Chris Long’s retirement like the rest of us. As he took to Instagram to officially announce his departure from the NFL, reality sunk in for the Eagles as they found out they wouldn’t get their veteran rotational pass rusher back into the mix for the 2019 NFL Season.
Over the course of the 2019 offseason, Long teased the idea of retirement or even worse, playing elsewhere – but it didn’t seem like it could officially happen. The Eagles were ordered to proceed through the drafting process as if he wasn’t going to return, and they did just that by drafting a defensive end in the fourth round when they selected Penn State’s, Shareef Miller.
However, just because the Eagles snagged yet another end, didn’t mean it was a guarantee that Long wasn’t going to return. What would it have taken to get him back? It wasn’t more money or a guaranteed starting position. Instead, it was a promised role that wasn’t full time, but also not so reduced. Unfortunately, the Eagles couldn’t guarantee Long anything regarding his role. They made that clear from the jump, and he made it clear that he probably won’t want to go through the hard work of the offseason again just to ride the bench.
What exactly was Chris Long’s role?
As stated before, Long didn’t want a starting role, per se. Last year, Brandon Graham and Michael Bennett saw the most snaps at defensive end, and Long likely figures he doesn’t need to be number one or number two. Just because he wasn’t a starter, though, doesn’t mean that Long was a certified backup. He appeared on the field during 612 snaps, which accounted for 58.96-percent of the Eagles’ defensive snaps in 2018.
During that time, Long notched 6.5 sacks, 23 tackles, and got 20 hits on the quarterback. In other words, Long was quite useful during his limited amount of time. His 2018 year was a slight increase in comparison to his 2017 role, which resulted in 48.16-percent of the defense’s snaps. Clearly, the Eagles benefitted from the small promotion. The veteran defensive end believes that he’s still got it to the point where he does deserve at least more than half of the snaps throughout the year.
Why couldn’t the Eagles promise his role?
If Chris Long were to return in 2019, why couldn’t the Eagles promise him a role that contained at least over 50-percent of the snaps? Well, it’s simple – they want to get their young guys going. Had Derek Barnett, their third-year veteran not gone down early on last year, the defensive snap count would look quite different. Last season, Michael Bennett accounted for the second-most amount of snaps at defensive end. The reality though, is that Bennett wouldn’t have come close to seeing almost 70-percent of the snaps if Barnett stayed healthy.
As for Long? He’s in the same boat. Just remember, the Eagles didn’t have Vinny Curry around, who they strangely think highly of, despite releasing him over a contract that was clearly overvalued a year ago. Long benefitted from no Curry, an injured Barnett, and depth full of question marks. But as the Eagles are trying to turn a page and go younger at some point, they have to give these younger guys a shot. The veteran defensive end didn’t want to go through the hard work of the offseason just to be issued around 40-percent of the snaps.
Next. A trade scenario involving Jerry Hughes has been discussed. dark
The Eagles lose an essential piece to their rotation with Long out of the picture, no doubt. But there comes the point when the Eagles need to start developing some of their younger guys, and the best way to do that is to ease them into a limited role on gameday.
The Eagles think highly of 2018 undrafted free agent, Joe Ostman. They clearly like their rookie fourth-rounder, Shareef Miller. Last year’s fourth-rounder, Josh Sweat is still on board and ready to get healthy for a Sophomore season. These young guys aren’t guaranteed to fill the void of Chris Long and match his production – but the Eagles have to be willing to try and find the replacement, and they were already prepared to do that by not promising any roles to return for the 2019 season. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but unfortunately, it had to be done.