Philadelphia Eagles make the right call signing Bradham over Robinson
After locking in Nigel Bradham to a long-term deal, the Philadelphia Eagles have lost Patrick Robinson to the New Orleans Saints.
After weeks of speculation and rampant rumors, the Philadelphia Eagles flipped the script on many pundits entering the 2018 NFL league year.
With many assuming that the team would resign Patrick Robinson to a new deal and lose Nigel Bradham in the process, the team did the exact opposite, prioritizing their every-down, do-it-all weak-side linebacker over their ball-hawking slot cornerback and will now have to rearrange their secondary as a result.
According to Ian Rapoport, contract talks stalled between Robinson and the Eagles after weeks of back and forth negotiations and the New Orleans Saints, the team that originally drafted Robinson 32nd overall in 2010, capitalized on the situation and locked their former player up on a new four-year deal.
And honestly, the Eagle made the right call.
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With the Eagles struggling to remain under the salary cap, the team correctly prioritized locking up an elite playmaker like Bradham to a long-term deal over an aging stopgap corner at arguably their deepest position, and the move shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. After trading Torrey Smith to the Carolina Panthers for Philly native Daryl Worley, it became clear that Philly has way too many young, supremely talented cornerbacks on their roster, and locking Robinson to a long-term would effectively block one of their young playmakers from seeing the field.
Going young at cornerback paid major dividends for the Eagles in 2017, transforming Jalen Mills from a struggling seventh-round pick to a legitimate number one cornerback, and highlighting just how much potential Rasul Douglas processes, and doing so once again in 2018 appears to be the plan.
Between Worley, Mills, Douglas, Ronald Darby and potential game changer Sidney Jones, the Eagles are going to have a serious battle for their three starting corner spots going into 2018, and retaining Robinson long-term would have been incredibly shortsighted, even after he played incredibly well in 2017.
Next: Five-year deal for Nigel Bradham well worth the money
Building a championship-caliber roster in the NFL is incredibly difficult, where a few bad long-term deals can cripple a roster for years, and getting sentimental can taint the player evaluation process. Though Patrick Robinson will always be remembered fondly by Philadelphia Eagles fans for his pick-six against the Minnesota Vikings in the 2018 NFC Championship game, and his lockdown play in the Super Bowl, he simply didn’t have a spot on the team going into 2018. By prioritizing an every-down player like Nigel Bradham over a luxury slot corner like Robinson, Howie Roseman is confirming that this team is built to last, and will do whatever it takes to return to the Super Bowl in 2018.