Each year after the draft has come and gone, the Philadelphia Eagles typically sign a few veteran players to plug unfilled holes on their depth chart, sometimes immediately, and sometimes a little closer to the season. Here we'll take a look at the positions that could still be addressed, and some potential answers at each spot.
Tight end
The Eagles are not going to pay the $14 million that Dallas Goedert is scheduled to make in 2025. He missed seven games in 2024, and all but 3 snaps in an eighth game, after missing three games in 2023 and five games in 2022. If he is going to return to the team, he is going to be forced to take a pay cut.
Goedert may not feel like a pay cut is super fair, given that he was a beast for the Eagles during the playoffs and helped them win a Super Bowl. However, he also has to be realistic about what other teams around the league might offer if the Eagles were to release him.
That situation remains fluid. If Goedert returns on a cheaper deal, the Eagles are set at tight end. If he does not return and is gone one way or the other after June 1, the Eagles cannot reasonably go into a season with Grant Calcaterra, Kylen Granson, and Harrison Bryant as their starting options and hope they can replicate Goedert's production as a receiver and blocker. The Eagles would likely seek to trade for another tight end on a rookie deal with one of the 12 draft picks they hold in the 2026 draft.
If Goedert does not return, the most logical trade target, in my opinion, is the Raiders' Michael Mayer.
Mayer was a Raiders second-round pick (35th overall) who has just 48 catches for 460 yards (9.6 YPC) and 2 TDs in his first two seasons. In 2024, he only had 21 catches for 156 yards (7.4 YPC) and 0 TDs. Part of that was because the Raiders used the 13th overall pick in the 2024 draft to select Brock Bowers, who was instantly one of the best tight ends in the NFL as a rookie, catching 112 passes for 1194 yards and 5 TDs.
I watched a little of Mayer, and I like him. He fights for every inch after the catch, and he's a good blocker. He's not the receiver that Goedert is, but the potential is there, and he has a solid floor.
Safety
The Eagles selected Andrew Mukuba in the second round of the 2025 draft, and if I were to handicap a training camp competition with him and Sydney Brown right now, I'd heavily favor Mukuba.
Brown is more physically gifted, but he has mental lapses and often plays out of control. Mukuba doesn't have Brown's blend of bulk and athleticism, but he is a smart, highly instinctive, versatile safety who knows how to play the position. It is my belief that Vic Fangio highly values assignment consistency at safety.
- MORE EAGLES
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- Analyzing the Eagles' reported 2025 undrafted free agent class
But what if training camp rolls around and Mukuba isn't ready to start? After all, safety can be a tough position to master, especially in Fangio's scheme. What if Brown doesn't show significant improvement?
It might make sense to give the young safeties some training wheels with the acquisition of a veteran, like they did at corner with Kelee Ringo when they signed Adoree' Jackson.
Prior to the draft, Justin Simmons expressed interest in playing for Fangio again, like he did for three seasons in Denver. While he is not the All-Pro player he once was, Simmons knows Fangio's scheme and could potentially serve as a safe option at safety should Mukuba and Brown falter.
Right guard
If training camp started tomorrow (it doesn't) the two main combatants for the starting RG job would be third-year pro Tyler Steen and trade acquisition Kenyon Green. Other guys in the mix:
• Trevor Keegan: Keegan was a guard only as a rookie, and therefore not super useful as a backup on gameday. He did manage to stick on the 53-man roster all season.
• Drew Kendall: Kendall is a rookie fifth-round pick. He only played center in college, but he has decent enough size at 6'4, 308 that he could probably play guard, too.
• Matt Pryor: Pryor played 895 snaps for the Colts at RG last season.
If the Eagles wanted to throw another body on the RG competition pile, Jedrick Wills might make some sense.
Wills was a Browns first-round pick (10th overall) in 2020. There were four offensive tackles taken in the first 13 picks of that draft:
• Andrew Thomas, Giants, 4th overall
• Jedrick Wills, Browns, 10th overall
• Mekhi Becton, Jets, 11th overall
• Tristan Wirfs, Buccaneers, 13th overall
Thomas and Wirfs both have All-Pro nods on their résumés, while Becton resuscitated his career with the Eagles in 2024 after flaming out with the Jets.
Wills finds himself in a similar position as Becton was in last year, when he didn't get much attention in free agency. Maybe he would be interested in signing in Philadelphia, where he could be well positioned to rejuvenate his career as well?
Wills is a highly athletic lineman who does not fit the prototype size requirements of an offensive tackle at 6'4, 312. Maybe he's better suited to play in the NFL at guard? But again, the Eagles already have something of a logjam at RG. How many players can they reasonably try out there during camp?
Long snapper
The Eagles signed Charley Hughlett and moved on from Rick Lovato this offseason.
Sign a young guy and give me a long snapper training camp competition to cover, you cowards.
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