Ranking The Importance Of Eagles Pending Free Agents

The Eagles are Super Bowl Champions, again.

But for Howie Roseman and the front office, that just shortens the time they have to try and reach extensions with their own players and makes it more likely they will have to wait until free agency.

The Eagles have quite a few players reaching free agency this season, many for just the first or second time in their careers.

How should the Eagles prioritize them?

 Note: This list will only include true free agents. It will not include restricted free agents (like Britain Covey) or exclusive rights free agents (like Ben VanSumeren) and it will not include guys technically under contract that could be cut to save cap space (Darius Slay and Dallas Goedert).

Honorable Mention: DE Brandon Graham

It’d be silly to rank Graham with the others. He either retires (as he’s said for multiple years now he would after this season) or he re-signs with the Eagles. There almost 0% chance he goes to any other team if he decides not to retire.

1 – LB Zack Baun

Baun bet on himself and it should pay off. It’ll be interesting to see how many teams are willing to bet on him after one standout season in Fangio’s offense after four years of being nothing more than a rotational player – and the number of teams is likely to determine what he gets offered. For the Eagles, however, it’s a risk worth taking. Baun is the only starting linebacker the team has that’s healthy. Their other starter, Nakobe Dean, has suffered his third injury forcing him to miss time in two seasons, and may not be ready to start the 2025 season. Their only returning depth from the 53 is second-year man Jerimiah Trotter and an also returning-from-injury Ben VanSumeren (should they bring him back as would be expected. An unproven trotter and two injury returns being the whole unit isn’t a good start for the position group and that should make Baun a top priority.

2 – DT Milton Williams / DE Josh Sweat

There assumption that has to be made is that Brandon Graham is retiring. With that, the Eagles would be figuring to lose three of their top eight guys on the line and that isn’t ideal. It’d be a lot easier to try and replace two and that means it’s in the Birds’ best interest to try and re-sign at least one of these guys. Which is the priority is tough to say. Milton has been a publicly praised player from DC Vic Fangio since before Fangio was in Philadelphia, but the DT depth in this year’s draft is expected to be among the strongest it’s ever been. Sweat has indicated he wants that money but he also said the fit is important. Then there’s what the team does with the big-money contract on Bryce Huff and how much they think Hunt can take a step forward on the edge compared to their expectations for Ojomo or Booker in the middle as potential replacement players that could work into the rotation more. These two are like 2a and 2b, but both are Eagles draft picks they’d like to keep and it’s hard to say which is more important – that may just come down to which of them wants to be here more and cares about the extra money less.

3 – LS Rick Lovato

Certainly it’s not going to be anything the press pushes everywhere and the contract won’t interfere much with the cap, but it’s hard to imagine the Eagles would move on from Lovato and they don’t have another long snapper – he’s the most likely of these pending free agents to sign an extension before free agency kicks off.

4 – CB Isaiah Rodgers

Again, this comes with a lot of internal questions. Can the Eagles work out Slay’s contract for what he says will be the final year of his career? Do they plan to have Bradberry back? How do they feel about Kelee Ringo and/or Eli Ricks? Does the team want to try DeJean outside or leave him inside? The Eagles may or may not need another corner, but Rodger got his second chance with the Eagles and was very appreciated – he may not have been a starter, but he played frequently with Slay having persistent knee injuries. If nothing else, he’s valuable depth or perhaps an opportunity for the Eagles to try and solidify the three corner spots for the near future if they see him as a starter on the outside.

5 – OL Mekhi Becton / OT Fred Johnson

The offensive line has some great players, but the guys up for free agency aren’t in the group that the team HAS to sign. With Jeff Stoutland, the Eagles have a coach that can develop depth and starters routinely. Tyler Steen would seem to be waiting in the wings if Becton were to leave, but that combined with Fred Johnson hitting free agency would mean that the Eagles would have their starters and essentially none of their top depth from the last season. Stoutland could replace it, but it’d be easier for him to not have to develop two players that need to be ready to play come week one at the same time – that would seem to make it somewhat of a priority for the team to try and bring back one of these guys (unless Stout already has his eyes on other FAs or draft steals). Both players seem to have a huge amount of chemistry in the locker room and both have credited the Eagles with saving their respective careers – it may come down to how much either wants to stay in Philadelphia.

6 – RB Kenny Gainwell

Will Shipley got a season to sit back and develop as a rookie and looked good in the opportunity he had in the NFC Championship game to kick the Commanders while they were down so the team is probably comfortable having him step in next season. Gainwell is probably not someone the Eagles will be bidding on and, if he does get a big contract, the Eagles can likely find a former starter or change-of-pace guy to bring in on a veteran minimum contract, so that big deal is unlikely to come from Philadelphia. The Birds will want another running back, though, and Gainwell will probably be their first choice before they look anywhere else.

7 – LB Oren Burks

As covered in the Baun section, the linebacker group is really set to be thin with 2/3 being set to return from injuries. Burks was brought in and didn’t make the initial 53-man but stuck it out with the team and became a really big part of the playoff run being the top backup for Dean. Particularly with Dean’s history, it’d probably be a good idea to have some depth at the position and Burks probably won’t command too much money at this point in his career, so he’s worthwhile watching for a return – particularly if they can’t reel Baun back in.

The Rest: WR Parris Campbell, OL Jack Driscoll, CB Avonte Maddox, OT Le’Raven Clark, TE C.J. Uzomah, OL Nick Gates, QB Ian Book

The Eagles very well might look to bring some of these players back as valuable depth, but it would seem near impossible that the Eagles would get into any bidding wars for any of these guys. If these players ultimately think they will earn more and/or play more elsewhere and want to take advantage of that, they’re gone. Expect the Eagles to keep tabs on them throughout the season, though – they’ve shown they are willing to bring back depth guys to the practice squad or to replace injuries if they fit into the culture well (see Jack Driscoll, Avonte Maddox, Ian Book this year).