Balancing Eagles’ veteran depth with youthful impact no easy task

PE.com poster Hot Rod 71: “I don’t know how much improved we are. Definitely some, kinda depends on which Malik Jackson we are getting, the one that got benched last season or the player from 2 seasons ago. I kind of feel that we overpaid a little for most of the guys we signed and I don’t like losing Bennett (was great last year with a team friendly salary). That trade made no sense to me, considering we got next to nothing. On the bright side, I think Howie has done a great job getting us into a position to take the best player available approach in the draft. The only position of need that hasn’t been addressed yet is RB and I think more competition will be probably be added there. LB is also still a need, I think, although we’ve added some depth players. All in all, pretty good FA period so far, but this roster is aging. That makes this draft crucial, have to nail it.”

I don’t disagree with anything Hot Rod is saying there. Yes, the sum of the pieces added has equated to a significant factor of veteran depth, but the undeniable fact is the Eagles are aging at a faster rate than they have provided youthful impact replacement talent. They have to count upon not just this year’s draft to reverse that trend, but also bank on greater progress to come from 2nd and 3rd year players already in the system. Sometimes that bloom and blossom blueprint fizzles out through no organizational fault. In many ways you have to rely upon good luck as much as good scouting to develop young talent. It’s a higher pressure challenge to stay in the league compared to gaining entry into it.

So I like to imagine Bert Bell if he were alive today urging the Eagles to continue their recent trend of recruiting veterans with high character who are more about the winning than the money. But from his vantage point he would also be begging them to get younger and faster wherever possible. Things have to begin opening up a lot more on offense, and it’s been a while since we’ve seen a truly mobile attacking defense. I think for all of the competitive improvement we’ve seen in the Eagles over the past three years, there’s still that lingering sense that our approach to sustaining cutting-edge performance is in danger of becoming stagnant. For all his wheeling and dealing, Howie Roseman is basically a  very conservative general manager. I can almost hear Bert Bell whispering in Howie’s ear: “Loosen up a little—predictability is often overrated in football.” Bert Bell would know—he shook up a lot of older “proven concepts” in football to help get the NFL to where it is today.