The Philadelphia Eagles came up just short in the Super Bowl, losing to the Kansas City Chiefs 38-35. Now attention turns to the Eagles' offseason where the team must figure out how to get back to the Big Game next year. That road to Super Bowl 58 starts with general manager Howie Roseman and company re-signing a few key Eagles free agents. Here we’ll look at the five free agents the Eagles must bring back after losing Super Bowl 57, including Fletcher Cox and Brandon Graham.
The Eagles have a lot of big-name free agents this offseason. The choice to bring some back, like center Jason Kelce, is out of the Eagles' hands. He’ll either decide to come back, and the Eagles will gladly have him, or he will retire.
Other Eagles free agents will test the market and may find deals that are bigger than what the Eagles are willing to offer. This group includes running back Miles Sanders and defensive backs Chauncey Gardner-Johnson and James Bradberry, who, although he was the goat of Super Bowl 57 with his penalty, had an excellent season all around.
Knowing that this Eagles offseason they can’t bring back everyone from this year’s Super Bowl quad, here are the five players the team needs to bring back at any cost. And in news that won’t surprise any Eagles fan, they’re almost all in the trenches.
5. DE Brandon Graham
Brandon Graham will be 35 when next season starts, but the defensive captain had a great season in 2022, racking up a career-high 11.0 sacks. He is the heart and soul of the Philly D, along with Fletcher Cox, after playing his entire 13-year career in the City of Brotherly Love.
This wouldn’t be a monster deal or a long-term one for the Eagles free agent, but Graham is important enough as a leader that the team needs to bring him back in 2023 if they are going to try and run it back to another Super Bowl.
4. LB T.J. Edwards
This Eagles' offseason, the team’s linebackers are in flux. Both T.J. Edwards and Kyzir White are free agents, and 2022 draft pick Nakobe Dean is waiting in the wings for his chance to get a bigger role on the squad.
Edwards is an Eagles free agent they must re-sign, though. The former undrafted LB out of Wisconsin has turned into a tackling machine at middle linebacker. After putting up a career-high 130 tackles in 2021, Edwards improved upon that in 2022 with a team-leading 159.
Edwards will be 27 when the 2023 season kicks off, so the Eagles can feel comfortable locking him up to a longer-term deal. He can be a cornerstone of the defense for years to come, but the team will have to write a decent-sized check to keep him. As one of the top LBs available on the market this offseason, there will be a bidding war for his services.
3. DT Javon Hargrave
Javon Hargrave made his first Pro Bowl in 2021 and in 2022 blew his sack numbers out of the water, taking down the opposing quarterback 11.0 times, a career-high. This Eagles free agent will be 30 in 2023, but he is still a high-level player.
The Eagles succeeded this season because of their dominance in the tranches, and to get back to the Super Bowl next season, they need to keep that advantage. Re-signing Hargrave would be a big step in that direction.
The Eagles do have last year’s first-round pick, Jordan Davis, at defensive tackle as well, but he played just 26% of the defense’s snaps this year. He’s not ready for the jump up to over 60% like Hargrave had.
2. OG Isaac Seumalo
We’ve gone over a bunch of guys in the defensive trenches that the Eagles need to bring back this summer. There is one on the offense, too, though. Isaac Seumalo is the least well-known among Jason Kelce, Lane Johnson, Jordan Mialata, and Landon Dickerson. However, he is just as much a key as the rest.
Especially if Kelce decides to retire this Eagles offseason, keeping Seumalo becomes even more crucial. One of the biggest aspects of Jalen Hurts’ development this season was that he played behind the best offensive line in pro football. Keeping that continuity is key in 2023.
1. DT Fletcher Cox
Fletcher Cox is the other heart and soul piece of the Philly D and should come back as well. Sure, Cox will turn 33 during the 2023 campaign, but he is still an effective run-stopper and pass-rusher.
Again, the key to the Eagles' success in 2023 is keeping its dominance in the trenches, and a DT rotation of Javon Hargrave, Fletcher Cox, and Jordan Davis are much more dominant than Davis and a free agent or rookie next to him next season.
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