Philadelphia Eagles: Philly’s 5 worst cornerback signings from 2010-2019

2. Byron Maxwell (2015)

One year after signing Nolan Carroll, the Eagles decided that having one disappointing corner on the roster wasn’t enough.

In comes Byron Maxwell, a former member of the ‘Legion of Boom’ and a Super Bowl champion. The Eagles signed him to a six-year, $63 million deal that guaranteed he’d make $25 million. It wasn’t long before the narrative became Maxwell’s success may have been due to who he had around him.

It’s now believed by many that he simply benefitted from having an all-star secondary around him, one that featured Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas, and Kam Chancellor.

It wasn’t always that way though. Maxwell presented an exciting option for Philadelphia. He was young, promising, and had championship experience. It appeared that Maxwell was the foundational piece in the secondary that the Eagles lacked for so many years.

That never materialized on the field.

Maxwell would only play one of those six seasons that he signed on to play. His stat line looks decent. He accumulated two interceptions, ten passes defended, and two forced fumbles in fourteen games, but the numbers don’t tell the tale. The eyeball test does, and in 2015, he was graded as the 80th best corner in the league. That’s not what you want from someone making that amount of money.

The only thing preventing Maxwell from taking the top spot on this list is the fact that Philly was able to flip him, a first-round pick and Kiko Alonso in a trade with the Miami Dolphins that wound up with them to the eighth overall pick in the draft which was then traded to the Cleveland Browns to select a certain quarterback from North Dakota.