Philadelphia Eagles: 5 potential replacements for Mychal Kendricks

Corey Nelson

If the Philadelphia Eagles want to replace Kendricks and Worrilow with a player already on their roster, the first man up will likely be Corey Nelson.

Nelson, one of the three players Howie Roseman brought in on the first day of free agency, had a rocky start to his professional career but has quietly developed into a pretty solid player over his first four years in the league.

After a solid career at the University of Oklahoma, where he appeared in 33 games over four seasons, Nelson went undrafted and signed on to join the Denver Broncos with no guarantee of even making John Fox‘s roster after the 2014 NFL Draft.

While he only played 10 percent of the team’s defensive snaps in 2014, Nelson quickly developed into one of the team’s top special teamers, logging the third most special teams snaps of any player on the team with 320.

And from there he just kept getting better.

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Though he never developed into a full-time starter at linebacker in Denver, Nelson continued to earn more and more snaps with each season, including six starts for the team in 2016 after they lost starting inside linebacker Brandon Marshall for the final four games of the season, and became an essential cog in the Bronco’s machine from then on.

This hard work and determination obviously put Nelson on the Eagles radar when he hit unrestricted free agency.

Even though the Eagles seemingly already had three returning starters locked in going into 2018, Nelson was brought in on a one-year, $2.25 million deal to “compete for a starting role“, a quote that seemed peculiar at the time, but now seems almost prophetic.

While he was once considered a depth signing by most at the time, Corey Nelson could very much end up being the Eagles weakside linebacker come Week 1 of the 2018 NFL regular season, and hopefully show the world that he’s far more than just a special team’s ace.