If you had to work yesterday, and chances are on a Tuesday you probably did, it had to have been a struggle to pay attention. Every time your phone buzzed, another player was on the move, another player had been released, and another team was finessed by Sam Bradford. It was bananas. There are some sports that aren’t as exciting as the Twitter refresh Jamboree the NFL just had. Let’s take a look at how the day went for the Eagles and the league as a whole.
THE EAGLES SAY FAREWELL TO THREE KEY PLAYERS:
• Trey Burton: A name we knew most likely we wouldn’t be capable of keeping, Burton goes to the Bears on a 4 year/ $32 million deal. Good for him. Sucks to see a guy who was just hitting his prime hit the market at the same time, but its business. A key weapon in the offense, Trey Burton will end his career with a completion percentage of 100%.
• Brent Celek: Yeah, I get it. This is a business and we are strapped for cash. But, cutting Celek to save $4.5 million in cap space still sucks. The longest tenured Eagle epitomized Philly toughness and no one deserved a ring doe than him. It’s hard to remember this team without him but make sure you remember this, the Miracle at the Meadowlands II doesn’t happen without 87:
• Beau Allen: Despite not signing with another team yet, Allen posted a very heartfelt goodbye on social media, thanking the Eagles for a journey that has come to a close. With the signing of Haloti Ngata (more on that later), the writing was on the wall. Allen, like Burton on a smaller scale, was going to be too expensive to keep around. You can’t pay everybody. Allen was getting starter caliber snaps last year to the point his count was almost equivalent to Timmy Jernigan. He is going to be a fine piece somewhere. My favorite Beau Allen moment was his pink ponytails in the month of October every season in honor of his mother. All three guys released today were so hard to say goodbye to, because they were such genuinely great teammates and people.
CHECKING IN ON THE REST OF THE NFC EAST:
Thank God for the Eagles front office and Howie Roseman. Looking around the rest of the division, what the fuck are these teams doing?
•The Giants signing Johnathan Stewart was like the NFL version of the drunken 2am, “are you up?” text. It was last call and you had no one to go home with, so you got desperate. You went home with whoever was there, and the Giants went home with a 30 year old running back who averaged 3.4 yards per attempt last year.
• Is there a more poorly run organization in the league than the Washington Redskins with Dan Snyder? Today, they lost Ryan Grant, their only productive running back, and they gave Paul Richardson $40 million over 5 years. Oh, and Kirk Cousins is officially gone. Every move they make just screams 7-9.
•Speaking of 7-9, the Cowboys did nothing today. Go figure.
THE EAGLES SIGNED GUYS I HAVE ALREADY TALKED MYSELF INTO:
•Haloti Ngata on the defensive line on a team friendly, one year deal is another steal. A major key to last seasons success was bringing in veterans with low cap hits on short deals and getting valuable production out of them (i.e. Legarette Blount, Patrick Robinson). Ngata has a similar deal and this defensive line is just loaded right now:
• The Eagles also signed Corey Nelson to a one year deal today. This is one of those classic signings where you’ve already talked yourself into the guy despite rarely, if ever, watching him play.
I love what the new norm has become:
If you join the Sixers, you tweet #TrustTheProcess
If you join the Eagles, you tweet #FreeMeek
It’s like passwords at after hours bars, you’re not really in until you say it.
That wraps a wild day in the NFL and on social media. Nick Foles is still an Eagle. We are going to have to pay Carson Wentz a shit ton of money because of the Vikings. There are still plenty of roster decisions to be made in Philly and across the league in the days to come. Aside from the Sixers turning the ball over twenty times, who knows what to expect.
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