Time for Eagles to play the annual Finders-Keepers game…

I look forward to a time when the team has to wait until February 15 or so to do its annual personnel and coaching staff reviews. Maybe next year?

Here are the guys still under contract who had high grades through most of the season or when they were able to play:

SPECIAL TEAMS — Not just the kicking specialists but also the guys on punt and kick return coverage and of course, return man Darren Sproles. Dave Fipp has this unit humming along nicely—a real plus and a big reason why the Eagles stayed close in so many games when not much else was working.

DEFENSIVE END BRANDON GRAHAM— The guy is getting double-teamed and still getting pressure—who thought we would be saying that about 4 years ago?

OFFENSIVE TACKLES JASON PETERS and LANE JOHNSON— The Birds were 5-1 when these two talents played in the same game together. Coincidence?—I think not. Peters has one more good year left in the tank, I reckon; Johnson is just beginning to enter his prime.

SAFETIES MALCOLM JENKINS and RODNEY McLEOD—Imagine two safeties on the same page for most of the time? Jenkins seems to get better and more versatile in coverage each year. McLeod is far from a perfect running mate but who else do you trust more to put back there?

LINEBACKERS JORDAN HICKS and NIGEL BRADHAM—Solid play from both as individuals and as a tandem. It’s been a while since the Eagles have had playmakers like these two guys lined up at the same time in a 3-LB set.

DEFENSIVE TACKLE FLETCHER COX—His numbers were down since switching to the 4-3, but his impact was still huge in clogging up opponent offenses.

QB CARSON WENTZ — A special talent with leadership ability to boot… A healthy offseason should help refine his talents further. Nice to know you have a smart young QB to build with…

TIGHT END ZACH ERTZ— I like Celek but Ertz has arrived as the target you need to find in the clutch. Wentz likes to go to him often partly because Ertz has sure hands and can adjust to the ball in flight.

Then there are the guys not exactly under contract:

I’d like to hold on to Bryan Braman strictly on the basis of his Special Teams work. I’d like to tender an offer to Bennie Logan but would not be shocked if he got an offer he couldn’t refuse from a team more desperate for help in the middle of their defensive line.

The other guys give me mixed emotions.

Trey Burton is a tough call because I like him so much on Special Teams. Burton made the team as a rookie free agent in 2014 and led the Eagles with 19 special teams tackles in 2015. This past season, Burton carved out a bigger role on offense with 37 catches for 327 yards and his first receiving touchdown.

“It’s definitely tough because I don’t know if I’m going to be here after this year,” Burton said. “I love all the guys on the team. I feel like we have a lot of chemistry, especially with the guys in my group. I would love to be here, for sure. But you never know.”

A lot of the “Keeper” decisions will be limited by salary cap math:

According to overthecap.com, the 2017 base salary cap is expected to be $168,000,000 – the exact figure will be announced later in the offseason. The Eagles currently only have $9.4 million in cap space to work with, a much lower figure than the team is used to.

“It’s unusual, certainly since I’ve been here, to have a more challenging situation, but part of our job in the front office is to look at this over a long period of time,” GM Howie Roseman explained this week. “As we sit here today, it isn’t like the first time that we’re kind of looking at that situation. We’ll do whatever is best for the football team.”

“As we look toward putting a plan in place, we’ve got to look at everyone on the team and figure out what the value is,” Roseman said. “Again, don’t want to talk about anyone specifically out of respect for those guys about contract situations, but we’ve got to do whatever is in the best interest of the team moving forward.”

Oh yeah, remember to save some salary cap room for rookie signings, too:

Next time we’ll get into the Draft thoughts of some of the folks who analyze the 3-to-5 year plan for the Eagles—including a journey to the center of analyst ~BROZ’ mind.