Philadelphia Eagles: Daryl Worley signs with the Raiders

After less than a month with the team, recently released Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Daryl Worley has signed with the Oakland Raiders.

Well, that didn’t take long.

Eight days after being released by the Philadelphia Eagles following a truly bizarre arrest in South Philly, Daryl Worley has found a new home in the AFC West with the Oakland Raiders.

While being charged with six offenses including driving under the influence, possession of an instrument of crime and resisting arrest after being discovered passed out in his car at 6 am was obviously a deal breaker for the Eagles, who swiftly cut the then-recently acquired cornerback less than a day after the news broke, Oakland is apparently willing to take a risk and hope that this is an isolated incident, as opposed to a pattern of behavior.

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And this isn’t a new trend for the Raiders.

Almost a year ago to the day, Oakland invested their first-round pick in the 2017 NFL Draft in another troubled cornerback in Ohio State‘s Gareon Conley, who was engulfed in a pretty bizarre situation of his own, and while he didn’t exactly make an impact as a rookie, as he only appeared in two games for the team, there’s still plenty of hope that the former Buckeye will develop into a start moving forward.

Maybe Worley can do the same.

Though he’d started 25 of the 32 games he appeared in over his first two seasons with the Panthers, Worley lost his starting spot midway through the 2017 season, and obviously fell out of favor with the Carolina brass, as he was promptly traded to Philly for Torrey Smith upon the start of the 2018 NFL calendar year.

But how does Worley’s release, and subsequent move west affect the Eagles moving forward?

Honestly not very much.

Sure, Worley most likely would have made the 53-man roster barring a horrible showing in training camp, but he was never going to be much more than a special teamer and potential dime DB, as Jalen Mills, Ronald Darby, Sidney Jones, and Rasul Douglas appear to have the top four spots in Cory Undlin‘s defensive back rotation more or less locked down.

While Worley appears to have been a longshot to become even a part-time player in Jim Schwartz‘s system in 2018, his abrupt release from the team effectively destroyed the team’s chances of trading Darby in the 2018 NFL Draft.

A preseason acquisition in 2017, Darby had an up and down season following a Week 1 leg injury that effectively cost him the vast majority of the regular season, and after the emergence of Mills and Jones as the team’s starting cornerbacks for the foreseeable future, Darby appeared to be the odd man out of the rotation when his rookie deal expires in March 2019. Though Darby is surely one of the top three cornerbacks on the Eagles’ roster, it appears incredibly unlikely that Howie Roseman and company are going to offer Darby an eight-figure contract to remain with the team moving forward.

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Though Worley’s subtraction will likely have no effect on the team going into 2018, his absence will surely affect their draft strategy going into the 2018 NFL Draft and will make it even more interesting to watch when the Eagles eventually are on the clock on Thursday night.

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