It seems like every few minutes during the first week of free agency there’s been another report of somebody signing a massive multi-year contract with a ton of guaranteed money.
You don’t hear about the guys nobody wants.
Not every free agent gets a huge contract. Some have to settle for minimum wage and some incentives. Others don’t get any offers at all and have to wait for midseason injuries to get an offer. Others never get another chance.
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Among the Eagles' free agents from the 2023 team, D'Andre Swift, Kevin Byard, Nichols Morrow, Marcus Mariota, Jack Stoll, Sua Opeta and Jack Driscoll have found new teams.
But two weeks into free agency, 11 others have yet to find a home. Nine of them started at least one game this past season.
Here’s a look at those 11 members of the 2023 Eagles still looking for a job.
Shaun Bradley: Tough situation for Bradley, who tore his Achilles last August in the preseason opener in Baltimore and missed the entire season. When healthy, Bradley is a good special teamer and an emergency linebacker. For a guy like Bradley, who was a 6th-round pick, will be 27 in two weeks and is exclusively a special teamer, it’s not easy finding a job even healthy when several hundred young kids are arriving in NFL training camps every year. Add the injury to the equation and now he has to prove he can still run like he did before he got hurt just to get an opportunity. If he's healthy, Bradley is good enough that he deserves an opportunity – and it could be here – but it won’t be easy for him to find a job.
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Zach Cunningham: Started 10 games last year after arriving a couple weeks into training camp and wasn’t awful but didn’t make any big plays, becoming the first Eagle to play at least 700 defensive snaps without a sack, interception or forced fumble since Patrick Chung in 2013. Howie Roseman has spoken highly of Cunningham since the season ended, which could be an indication the Eagles plan to bring him back if his price keeps coming down. Would be a smart addition as a backup but not as a starter. He’ll be somewhere.
Justin Evans: Oft-injured safety was opening-day starter but lasted 3 ½ games before suffering what turned out to be a season-ending knee injury. Injuries have limited Evans to 19 games over the last five seasons. With his injury history could be difficult to find a job. Certainly won’t be here.
Julio Jones: After joining the Eagles in November, Jones caught 11 passes for 74 yards and three touchdowns in 11 games as the Eagles desperately tried anything to find a capable third receiver. Jones is 35 now, has 13 years in the books, has earned nearly $150 million and is a Hall of Fame lock. He’s five years removed from his last elite season and has been with four teams the last four years. Maybe a team with a bunch of WR injuries will call Jones once the season begins, but it feels like this is it for Jones, who is 13th in NFL history with 13,703 career yards.
Shaquille Leonard: He was a 1st-team all-pro as recently as 2021, but injuries now threaten Leonard’s career after just six seasons. He was released by the Colts in November and looked lost in his five late-season games with the Eagles. It’s a shame because he was on a Hall of Fame track, but Leonard could very well be done.
Avonte Maddox: The oft-injured nickel is in a tough situation because teams aren’t going to guarantee any money for a guy who missed 13 games this past season, nine the year before and 13 from 2018 through 2020. It’s just too risky. Maddox will be somewhere in 2024 and could be back with the Eagles, but it will have to be on a minimum-wage deal – or close to it – with playing-time incentives. Maddox is terrific when he can stay on the field. He just hasn’t been able to do that very much lately.
Rashaad Penny: One of the stranger seasons in recent Eagles history. Penny arrived in Philly a year ago amid much fanfare, thanks to the 2nd-highest rushing average in NFL history by a running back – behind a guy named Skeet Quinlan, who played in the early 1950s. Then he rode the bench all year, playing in just three games, with 11 carries for 33 yards – five of them in the second half of the season-ending blowout loss to the Giants. Now he’s got a big, giant question mark around his career. Maybe someone will bring Penny in for camp, but at 28 and with just 21 games played over the last four years he’s facing an uncertain future. This could be it for him.
Bradley Roby: Another one of the Eagles’ one-year defensive stopgaps still without a job. The Eagles signed Roby in October as they tried to find a slot answer, and he played 344 snaps in nine games without making an impact and was even a healthy scratch for the late-season Cards loss. He’ll be 32 in May and there might not be a job for him. If there is, it’ll be in an emergency and it won’t be here.
Quez Watkins: The fact that Watkins – still only 25, with world-class speed and big-play potential – remains unsigned when can’t be asking for much money tells you what the league thinks of him. Watkins had five catches of 40 yards or more in 2021 and the first half of 2022 before the big plays turned into drops and interceptions, and Watkins’ playing time disappeared. He’ll eventually get an opportunity somewhere – somebody is going to look at his traits and at least bring him into camp. Maybe like Mack Hollins and Nelson Agholor he’ll be able to get his career together with another team. He definitely needs a change of scenery.
Boston Scott: Scott will make somebody a solid, reliable, low-cost backup running back, but players in his position have to wait their turn. After rushing for more than 1,200 yards from 2019 through 2022, Scott was rarely used last year (20 carries for 86 yards), and with Saquon Barkley and Kenny Gainwell under contract, there doesn’t appear to be a significant role for Scott in Philly. But he’s a good back – 4.3 career average, 71 catches, over 2,000 scrimmage yards, 20 touchdowns in limited playing time. The Eagles could very well want Scott back as RB3, but he may prefer trying to find a team where he can have a bigger role.
Olamide Zaccheaus: Like Zach Pascal in 2022 and Jones and Watkins this past year, Zaccheaus was supposed to answer that 3rd WR question but for various reasons couldn’t. After averaging nearly 500 yards per season with the Falcons in 2021 and 2022, he dropped to 10-for-164 in his one year with the Eagles, and in the Eagles’ last 15 games he had as many catches of at least 12 yards from Braden Mann as Jalen Hurts (one). Some of the blame falls on the play calling and some on Jalen Hurts, who only targeted Zaccheaus 10 times on 471 snaps. But when he got chances he wasn’t very good either. I suppose he’ll get into a camp somewhere, but I don’t think he’s a lock to make a roster.
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