As we all know, the first week of NFL free agency is exciting. It’s chaotic and over a billion dollars in cold hard cash is thrown around. It’s followed by dozens of analysts and wanna be analysts providing grades on each players signing and how each team did, with millions reading about it. In the Eagles case, with exception of one major signing, thousands of fans were freaking out about how little they did. They will talk about how they are pinching pennies or rebuilding. You know what else the first week of free agency is…overrated.  The Eagles fans outrage is…overblown.

Personally, when free agency started out slow for the team and they traded one of their three first round picks I just figured they were taking a year to reset their cap situation and getting ready to make a hard push next year. As the free agency wore on, I realized they were just being patient with the push this year and am despite Sean’s article you can find here excited to see how it goes!

After this season we may look back and reflect on this article and point out how wrong I was and how flawed my logic was. In fact I will set a reminder to look back on it and do a post mortem article on it. For now though lets explain why I feel the way I do.

The Eagles started free agency strong with signing Haason Reddick. He was ranked somewhere in the teens for top free agents. The price tag made for one of the top-rated moves over the first couple days, but that was it. Zach Pascal did not excite anyone, and resigning Anthony Harris and Derrick Barnett did not either. Howie did not budge; he stayed the course and waited in the wings. He found great value in signing Kyzir White. As mentioned above (when I thought it was going to be a cap resetting year), he traded one of the three first rounder’s he was savvy enough to pick up last year, for another savvy move for a 1st possibly higher in the draft next year and a 2nd rounder the year following. Howie then drafted someone that was highly regarded in the first round in Jordan Davis, then made another move that was considered (my buzzword in the article) savvy in trading for the rights of AJ Brown. Another linemen Cam Jurgens to solidify the trenches was ok, but then Nakobe Dean in the third round was considered the steal of the draft. The icing on the cake as discussed further below was the signing of stud CB James Bradberry.

By comparison, take a team like Jacksonville. They had four of the top 25 free agent signings and still only ended up rated as the 17th best free agent haul in 2022, according to CBS sportsline’s rankings. Houston also spent a lot and ended up being ranked dead last by CBS.

As for the rest of the NFC east rankings in the sportsline article. The Giants rated 27th with no money to spend and lost one of their top players (James Braberry) to their rival, and our hometown Eagles in another move that was applauded by the same analysts the probably were providing poor grades at the start of free agency. The Cowboys were ranked 20th, losing Amari Cooper and La’el Collins and paying aging vets Demarcus Lawrence and POS Randy Gregory were all viewed negatively. Washington was ranked 18th with Wentz as their biggest splash. The Eagles ranked 14th in the early going, but a later article had them ranked as the most improved team.

Peter King for ProFootballtalk.nbcsports.com had the Eagles rated as in his top 10 power rankings coming in at number 9 and the top team in the NFC East. The next team…the cowboys were way down at 15. Peter King said, “I picked the Eagles ahead of Dallas because the Eagles got significantly better this offseason and Dallas worse, with the subtraction of two key contributors (Amari Cooper and Randy Gregory) and the addition of none.” Peter has the Giants 24th and Washington at 26th.

So, if we are going to kick Howie and call for his job when we feel he has done poorly, we need to recognize when he does well. For example, the Superbowl year, last year’s free agency and draft that set him up nicely for, as the article covers, this year. It also, with 6 picks in the first 2 rounds the next two years, positions himself nicely for continued success going forward.