5 Philadelphia Eagles whose stock has fallen through 3 weeks

Why did the Philadelphia Eagles trade for Genard Avery?

Last year, the Eagles made an unexpected move at the trade deadline and shipped off a 2021 fourth-round pick to the Cleveland Browns in exchange for edge rusher Genard Avery. In his rookie season, Avery played well when he was on the field. He racked up 4.5 sacks, 14 quarterback hits, 40 tackles (five for loss), and one forced fumble. Unfortunately, he got stuck at the back of a solid depth chart at the defensive end position in Cleveland, playing just five defensive snaps in 2019.

When he came to Philly, he played just 33 snaps in the final eight games of the season. The argument was he needed time to adjust to Schwartz’s scheme and that he would become a rotational defensive end who would contribute in 2020. It’s only been three weeks, but the future doesn’t look promising for Avery. He didn’t have a great Summer, and in all honesty, there are a lot of people who believe his roster spot should have gone to Joe Ostman.

In the last two games, he’s played just 31 defensive snaps. To his credit, he does have a half a sack, two tackles, and one quarterback hit in his limited playing time but it doesn’t justify dealing a fourth-round pick for his services. Rookie defensive end Casey Toohill didn’t even have a full offseason to get acclimated and has already played 22 defensive snaps so far this season.

Brandon Graham still has some juice left, and he’s the leader of that defensive line. Josh Sweat is looking more and more like the real deal every week. Derek Barnett looked solid last week and isn’t a bad third defensive end especially with Vinny Curry sidelined. When Curry comes back, there will be fewer snaps to go around and Avery will probably be warming the bench most of the time. This turned out to be a poor trade for Philly.