For the second time in under a decade, the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl, but they did so in a somewhat unusual way.
You see, the first go around, the Eagles really pushed their chips to the center of the table in the pursuit of greatness, giving out big money contracts in free agency, making multiple trades for high-end starting players like Ronald Darby and Timmy Jurgens, and even pulled off a huge move at the trade deadline, bringing in Jay Ajayi to pair with LeGarrette Blount. While the Super Bowl win was sweet, the Eagles slowly but surely shed many of their fixtures of that era, with Nick Foles, Alshon Jeffery, Malcolm Jenkins, Jordan Hicks, and Zach Ertz all gone before the Jalen Hurts era really got cooking.
In 2024, by contrast, the Eagles really didn't make as many major moves. Sure, they signed Saquon Barkley, who was always going to be a good player behind Jeff Stoutland's offensive line, but no one knew he would become a 2,000-yard rusher, especially the New York Giants, who had to watch the headlines with a clenched fist all season long. Zach Baun was signed as a backup, as was Mekhi Becton, and the team's two biggest acquisitonal swings, signing Bryce Huff and trading for Jahan Dotson, barely even moved the needle, as neither did much to secure the Super Bowl win.
Goodness, Howie Roseman and company were so unwilling to go all-in on the Super Bowl last season that they didn't even make a move at the 2025 NFL trade deadline even after losing Brandon Graham to a torn triceps, instead signing Charles Harris in free agency, who played all of 55 defensive snaps, including zero in the Super Bowl.
Fortunately, none of that really mattered; the Eagles built an unstoppable ground game, which, when coupled with Vic Fangio's impressive defense, took them all the way to the Super Bowl, where the Kansas City Chiefs didn't have an answer on either side of the ball. The Eagles reached the promised land for the second time in eight years, with a few two-timers on the roster, no less, and in the end, will have that on their resume for the rest of time.
Fast forward to the start of training camp and once again, the Eagles have said goodbye to a number of key cogs from their Super Bowl run, with Becton, Josh Sweat, Milton Williams, Darius Slay, and CJ Gardner-Johnson – among others – exiting for new opportunities elsewhere. While this was practically built into the process, as Roseman has effectively turned the Eagles into a college-style pipeline, where he can grow starters over multiple seasons while implementing them with big free agents and high draft picks, that strategy only works if the replacement players can more or less match who they are replacing.
Unfortunately, at least one of those positions hasn't quite gotten to where it needs to be, so much so that the Eagles have had to make a new deal to help right that wrong before a single preseason snap: outside cornerback.
The Eagles clearly don't have a CB2
On paper, the Eagles have two of the best young cornerbacks in the NFL in Quenyon Mitchel and Cooper DeJean. Considering every single NFL team deploys two outside cornerbacks in their base package, that should be great news, but so far, it looks like Vic Fangio isn't all that interested in playing the second round pick out of Iowa on the outside, as he's been crosstraining more at safety when the Eagles aren't in a defensive subpackage, where his unique ability to defend in space could theoretically be more effective.
So that just leaves Mitchell, who is better than Slay was last year and should follow an opposing team's best receiver, and an open spot at CB2, with five players competing for the spot.
Of the fearsome fivesome, Kelee Ringo was supposed to be the guy to take over at CB2, but so far, that just hasn't been the case, with Adoree' Jackson getting first-team reps over the third-year Georgia product and expected reserves like Eli Ricks and Mac McWilliams each making plays in the competition. Ringo has all the athletic gifts in the world, but he's only played 311 defensive snaps so far at the NFL level, and by Fangio's own admission, he simply hasn't eliminated the mistakes needed to become a long-term starter.
Jackson is a veteran player not too dissimilar from other corners the Eagles have been successful with, like Slay, James Bradberry, and Isaiah Rodgers, but with almost a decade under his belt, the undersized cornerback may no longer have the athleticism that once produced quality results over multiple NFL teams.
While Ricks and McWilliams each bring some excitement to the defense, with the latter specifically earning some flowers from Fangio for his early efforts as a rookie, neither has become the breakout star Philadelphia would have liked, leaving them as depth pieces instead of dark-horse starting options.
Goodness, the Eagles just traded for another young cornerback with interesting upside in Jakorian Bennett, a 2023 fourth-round pick who played over 800 snaps over his first two years with the Las Vegas Raiders. Bennett didn't grade out very well in Las Vegas from PFF, ranking 135th among 222 qualifying cornerbacks in 2024 and 215th out of 229 qualifying cornerbacks in 2023, but he is one of the best athletes in the NFL at his position, and could use his 4.30 40 time to good effect in recovery situations.
Now granted, maybe the Eagles do have a plan at CB2, and that will become clearer during the next four weeks. Maybe some player will make play after play during the preseason and force Philadelphia's hand, or maybe, just maybe, the side of the field not covered by Mitchell will be a major issue for the Eagles this fall, with opposing offenses attacking the CB2 repeatedly just like when Rodgers entered the game for Slay last season. If that happened, the Eagles fortunately have enough depth to pivot on the fly, but may not have “the guy” to calm the waters and get the Eagles back on track, forcing Roseman to make a move in October that he might not want to.
