Potential Eagles free-agent targets with connections to Jonathan Gannon

Could Xavier Rhodes re-establish himself in an Eagles jersey?

Once upon a time, Xavier Rhodes was seen by many as being one of the best young corners in the game. Now, he’s 31 years old. He turns 32 in June, and he figures to leave the Indianapolis Colts three months before that happens. That would mean that Indy had decided to move on after one season.

Rhodes’ story is similar to that of Mackensie Alexander’s. They both played under Gannon in Minnesota. They both have made their living by chasing some of the game’s best wideouts around, but Rhodes has done something that Alexander couldn’t. He’s found his way onto three Pro Bowl rosters (2016, 2017, and 2019).

On March 13th of 2020, Minnesota released Rhodes after seven years. With Indy, he earned AFC Defensive Player of the Week honors after picking Sam Darnold off twice in Week 3 of the most recent NFL season. The only way to connect the dots between the Eagles and Rhodes is to, again, bring up the four seasons that they shared from 2014 to 2017.

Still, even if you do so, it seems highly unlikely that Philly would want to start and pay top dollar for two cornerbacks who are over the 30-year-old threshold. Who knows though? We’ve been wrong before.

It will be interesting to see what the market is for Rhodes as we near free agency. We’ll see if there’s any interest by the Birds at that time.