Eagles dodged a bullet via Kenny Golladay’s acquisition by Giants

Perhaps the most encouraging storyline that will come out of the Philadelphia Eagles 2021-2022 season is as follows. A team we’d thought would enter the campaign with, at best, hopes of winning as many games as they can in a rebuilding year earned a playoff berth.

As great as that story will be to share with our grandchildren, here’s something else to ponder. Regardless of how the Birds’ season ends, the future looks bright. There’s reason to be optimistic about the offseason.

Philadelphia will have a ton of draft capital. They’ll have money to spend in free agency.

Part of the reason for that is, even though we thought Eagles vice president/general manager Howie Roseman was a moron for taking Jalen Hurts in Round 2 of 2020’s NFL Draft, he was right. The rest of us were wrong, but based on Howie’s history, none of us were prepared for that. Why would we have been?

The other reason that Philly’s in a better position than originally believed is they ignored expensive and highly-touted free agents while also passing on some disgruntled guys who would have been costly to sign.

Remember when ‘Yannick Ngakoue to the Eagles’ was a thing? Yep, Philly dodged a bullet there. They also dodged two others as two big fish of the past two free-agency cycles signed with a division rival.

Thank goodness the Eagles didn’t sign Kenny Golladay.

Part of the deal with loving the Eagles means you’re constantly talking about this team’s need for wide receivers and cornerbacks. They just can’t find suitable talent for the position. It’s been the same old story in 2020 and 2021.

In 2020, it was believed that the Eagles would land one of the top two available talents at the cornerback position, Byron Jones or James Bradberry. They didn’t get either one of them. Jones wound up with the Miami Dolphins. Bradberry joined the hated New York Giants.

In 2021, no Birds enthusiast would have complained had Philly landed one of the better talents at wide receiver, but the money to spend wasn’t there thanks to some bad deals handed out by Roseman. Howie spent much of his time just trying to get his team to a position in which they were salary cap compliant. He did, but as a result, they missed on guys like Kenny Golladay.

We’ve had time to reassess and examine the evidence. In missing on Jones and Bradberry, Howie was forced to work some magic, and that’s exactly what he did. He landed Darius Slay via a trade with the Detroit Lions.

Call it luck. Call it skill. Whatever you choose to call it, here are the facts. Slay is better than Jones and Bradberry. Philly dodged a bullet.

In terms of Golladay, here’s how things have worked out on that deal. He inked a four-year, $72 million deal on March 20th. All he’s been able to produce is 34 receptions for 499 yards. He hasn’t caught a touchdown pass all season.

Eagles vice president/general manager Howie Roseman’s approval rating is graded on two things: his ability to manage the salary cap and how he manages the draft. He hasn’t done either job particularly well, but he will, again, have a shot to redeem himself in the next offseason.

The Eagles’ ability to be a true player in free agency alone is a stark contrast to what we saw from Philly in 2021. Many of the guys that they got on bargains didn’t work out, Ryan Kerrigan, Kerryon Johnson, and Eric Wilson for instance, but if there is a silver lining, this would be it.

While it hasn’t been perfect, the contractual snafus that Howie made handcuffed the franchise, but things can always be worse. Kerrigan’s inability to register a single sack is embarrassing, but that’s a whole lot better than guaranteeing what’s been a marginal receiver about $18 million annually and getting less than 500 receiving yards (and zero touchdowns as a result).

We’ll never know how interested the Eagles brass was in Golladay, but here’s what we can say with confidence. The Birds definitely dodged a bullet when he settled in with Big Blue.