What is the Philadelphia Eagles' biggest issue heading into free agency?
Is it a new CB2 to play alongside Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean in defensive subpackages? Or how about a new tight end, should they allow Dallas Goedert to leave in free agency? Could it be a veteran backup quarterback to free up a Tanner McKee trade? Or maybe just one more quality offensive linemen to avoid things falling apart in the trenches like last season?
Discussing the team's forthcoming free agency plans at the 2026 NFL Combine, Howie Roseman noted that the Eagles have to be very decisive with their free agency spending, as priority number one has to be re-signing young players currently on their rookie-scale contracts.
“I think from a big picture perspective, we want to build a team that every year has a chance to compete for championships, that drafts really well and signs their own players, and just sporadically goes into free agency. That's what we're trying to do. And sometimes as much as you want to add from outside and you want to change it up, you’ve got to make a decision to keep the players you know have played well and are part of your culture,” Roseman said via NBC Philadelphia.
“Can we keep all our guys considering we have, for example, a lot of key defensive players coming off rookie deals in the next few years? No, we are going to have to make choices. For us to sign them, that's gonna limit some flexibility with outside players. So then you combine that with the fact that teams, because there's more cap room, because the cap has gone up, teams have done a great job of signing their own players. And so you can just shuffle deck chairs, right, and just say, ‘Hey, I'm gonna trade out this guy because he's not ours,’ and maybe it's a better PR move that, ‘Hey, we're active, look they signed this guy,’ but that means we're gonna have to get rid of one of our own guys, you know, and so everything we do at this point is a trade-off. If we do this, we're gonna have to get rid of that.”
As things presently stand, the Eagles have one high-profile homegrown player who is set to hit the open market in Nakobe Dean, with Jordan Davis eligible for an extension, and the likes of Jalen Carter, Nolan Smith, Cooper DeJean, and Quinyon Mitchell all coming up soon enough. Factor in Jaelan Phillips, the former first-round pick Roseman acquired for a third last year before the trade deadline, and the Eagles really do have a massive tab that is going to become due before fans know it.
And yet, if the Eagles are going to dip a toe into the free agent waters, they're going to have to really make sure it's the right person for the job. Fortunately, there is a free agent on the open market who could supercharge the Eagles' offense and already has experience playing under Sean Mannion as a pro: Romeo Doubs.
Romeo Doubs could give the Eagles long-term AJ Brown insurance
In 2025, the Eagles' offense wasn't exactly dynamic.
Sure, some of that had to do with Kevin Patullo's playcalling, which stalled out drive after drive, and the team's injuries on the offensive line, but after watching Kellen Moore draw up plays that far exceeded expectations in 2025, especially on the ground, the Eagles more or less took what opposing defenses offered them instead of fighting for more.
No, for better or worse, the Eagles players just didn't seem willing or able to pick up YAC at the same level as their Super Bowl run, with AJ Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Dallas Goedert all watching their post-catch production fall off a cliff, going from 12.1, 9.1, and 6.8 to 3.4(!), 3.8, and 3.9, respectively. Granted, that might be because Patullo called plenty of out and comeback routes that don't often result in YAC, but how many times did the Eagles throw a screen on second or third down where they needed six yards but only got two?
All. The. Time.
No, with the Eagles bringing in Sean Mannion and his new scheme, it seems only right that they would bring over one of his players to provide some continuity and fresh blood to the tired Sirianni scheme, with Doubs clearing the field in that regard by a wide margin.
Standing 6-foot-2, 204 pounds, Doubs is a big-bodied wide receiver who can make plays down the field, across the middle, and, most crucially of all, in the red zone. While the Packers didn't use him as a spry screen threat all that often, with other players like Savion Williams, Malik Williams, or Jayden Reed filling that role, he did showcase an impressive ability to come down with the ball in this hands, with his 3.5 percent drop rate looking all the more impressive, considering he had to play a solid chunk of the season with Malik Willis under center.
In the Eagles' offense right now, Doubs would fill the role Brown has been tasked with primarily, allowing Mannion to move his players around and give the three-time Pro Bowler a chance to body smaller slot cornerbacks as he looks for seams in defenses.
Now granted, considering the Eagles' financial issues, does it really make sense to invest in Doubs, who is projected to earn $12 AAV in 2026, according to Spotrac? To some lesser general managers, the answer to that question might be no, but Howie Roseman is a certified cap genius and could use the levers at his disposal to lock up a 25-year-old playmaker on a deal as Brown's eventual replacement.
Assuming the Eagles don't trade Brown, they could give Doubs a contract with a relatively small cap hit in 2026, divying up future money between the remainder of the deal and void years that could commit $1-2 million per season a few years into the future when his 2026 contract expires. This would allow the team to keep Brown, Smith, and Doubs as their top-3 wide receivers in 2026, still select a talented young player in the 2026 NFL Draft who fits their scheme on a cost-controlled contract, and still remain cap-compliant for years to come.
And if Brown is traded? Well, then the Eagles have a WR2 next to Smith with expertise in the last offense Mannion was a part of, who caught 202 passes on 320 targets for 2,424 yards and 21 touchdowns over his 59 games in Green Bay, which is more than worthy of investing in.
Could the Eagles opt to play things safe and hand a similarly structured contract to Dean – albeit at a much lower per-year cap – as their long-term insider linebacker for when Zack Baun is out of his prime? Most certainly so, but after watching their offense be the clear issue in 2025, adding a player like Doubs would go a long way in fixing the Eagles' biggest issue heading into the fall.
