Top 5 questions surrounding beginning of Philadelphia Eagles camp

3. What’s the deal with the 2017 Philadelphia Eagles draft class?

Don’t look now, but that 2017 Eagles draft class now finds themselves in contract seasons, with the exception of Derek Barnett. Philadelphia exercised the fifth-year option on his rookie deal back on April 28th, but as far as the rest of that class goes, only three more of the eight guys Philly selected the year the “City of Brotherly Love” hosted the selection meeting are still on the team.

Mack Hollins, Donnel Pumphrey, Shelton Gibson, and Elijah Qualls are all gone, leaving decisions that will need to be made on Sidney Jones, Rasul Douglas, Nathan Gerry, and each of their futures. Right now, the only person in that crop that’s demonstrated he deserves a long-term deal from this team is Nathan Gerry.

Douglas has had his moments, but he’ll never be an elite cornerback in this league, and Jones doesn’t look like he’ll ever crack the starting lineup. The fact that we’re even debating whether or not a former second-rounder can start for a team in desperate need of help at c

Then, there’s another issue. The problem is with no fans attending the games, a shrunken salary cap number in 2021 is almost certain. Not only that, but Philly’s salary cap situation in 2021 was already one of the league’s worst. Howie Roseman has navigated the rigors of the salary cap over and over again, but he’ll really have to roll up his sleeves here.