Arguments for and against Philadelphia Eagles reacquiring Timmy Jernigan
We could also argue that adding Timmy Jernigan could give the Philadelphia Eagles elite depth at defensive tackle.
Every coin has two sides. Just because the question about whether or not Jernigan is better than Philly’s fourth-best defensive tackle is being asked doesn’t mean that anyone’s certain that he isn’t. No one knows if he’s better than Hassan Ridgeway at this point in his career and if we’re being honest, having Jernigan at 50 percent is still better than having some other NFL prospects that are completely healthy.
It would seem that the appropriate amount of recovery time from back surgery would be a year or more even if you weren’t playing football. Jernigan tried to return in less than 12 months, and when you consider the fact that playing in the trenches in the NFL requires both strength and leverage, it becomes easy to explain why there may have been some challenges with Jernigan duplicating what we had become accustomed to seeing from him before his surgery.
The fact that he’s produced anything, which he has, is a demonstration that Jernigan is either super-talented or an alien. If the financial part of this can be worked out and is team-friendly (which it should be), there shouldn’t be any issues with giving Jernigan a look. No, he isn’t Fletcher Cox, but who is?
Part of the problem was Jernigan has had to start, and that wasn’t supposed to be “Plan A” in 2019. On the other hand, if he’s the fourth man in, wouldn’t that give the Eagles elite depth? There’s only one way to find out.