Eagles
The NFL’s legal tampering period began yesterday. This means teams can begin to reach out to free agents and create tentative deals. The craziest part is how all of these deals get completely ironed out within hours of the legal period. Almost like they’ve been talking since the season ended but this is Eagles focused.
The Eagles lost some key members from the 2025 defense during the March 9th 2026 start date. Reed Blankenship went to the Texans (RIP the Exciting Whites). Jaelen Phillips went to the Panthers. He got PAID, but we’ll break it down later. The final “departure” was Nakobe Dean to the Raiders. He also had a genuinely great post-Philadelphia decision we’ll talk about. Let’s take a further look at the players and deals they received.
Reed Blankenship (Oakland Raiders 3-years $24.75 million with $16.5 million guaranteed): This one stings a little bit, not gonna lie. The contract doesn’t have gaudy numbers by any means. Plus the pairing of him and DeJean led to a lot of funny pictures about revolutionizing the Defensive Back position with our melanin-deficient players. Then again the Eagles could look to target either Dillion Thieneman or Michael Taaffe if they want to keep the trend. You know the old gym-rat/lunch pail/ coach’s son/milk check type of player if you catch my drift.
Jaelan Phillips (Carolina Panthers 4-years $120 million with $80 million guaranteed): Like I said before, he got paid big time. Probably too well paid for a team contending for a Super Bowl. For reference, this is about four Reed Blankenship contracts based on per year salary. He would be perfect for a team that would be considers one or two playoff wins as a success as they try and build more. For a team like the Eagles, this would be a massive overpay for a guy was only with the team for eight (8) games.
Nakobe Dean (Oakland Raiders 3-years $36 million with $20 million guaranteed): Kinda thought Howie was going to pull the rabbit out of his hat again here. It seemed like a good chance the Eagles would resign him. Then again if I had to pick for someone like Nakobe Dean or Jordan Davis I’d pick Jordan Davis even at the difference levels of contracts. Repeat after me, “football is won in the trenches.” It also gives me hope that Jihaad Campbell will step into the role Dean had.
The Cowboys reportedly offered a similar deal to Nakobe Dean. He, like any of us fans would totally do after being offered millions of dollars, chose to look elsewhere. Who knows, could be a good sign if the Raiders rebuild doesn’t work. Fans would certainly welcome him back with open arms and denying the Cowboys. Those are purely speculation and maybe dreams of mine.
Now what does this mean for the Eagles? If the season started tomorrow, I’d be worried. Luckily, we have an entire draft and offseason to still go through before you should start analyzing the rosters. Then again, telling someone from Philly to calm down goes about as well as saying it to an angry girlfriend or wife. Also the offseason is for your overreactions and random thoughts. Can you worry? Sure, I’m not a therapist, I’m some blogger online. What I will say is that there’s going to be more to come. As always, Go Birds!
Source: NFL Instagram
Hello, I’m a greater Philadelphia native writing mostly about the Eagles and the rest of the NFL. Articles aren’t … More about Kyle Lavin
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