Philadelphia Eagles: Howie Roseman is all in on Kamu Grugier-Hill in 2019
After failing to land a linebacker in the 2019 NFL Draft, Howie Roseman and the Philadelphia Eagles appear to be all in on Kamu Grugier-Hill.
Are you a bit worried that the Philadelphia Eagles didn’t add a linebacker of note in the 2019 NFL Draft?
Well, fear not, as apparently, Howie Roseman believes the Eagles already have everything they need on their roster.
In a press conference addressing the draft (as per NBC Sports Philadelphia), Roseman described the team’s decision to stick to their guns (and board) and maintain a best-player-available mindset regardless of their internal needs; giving a mildly confusing quote that sums up his mindset last Friday night in regards to the team’s roster construction.
"We need some of our young guys to take a step up at both those spots,” Roseman said. “They have been here. We are hopeful that that’s the case, and again, talent-acquisition season has not ended. We have a long way to go before we play a game, and then we have a long way to go before the trade deadline. We’re not going on vacation now. We’re going to continue to try to do whatever we can to support coach (Doug Pederson) and his staff."
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So, what does this mean? Well, for one, it means the Eagles clearly liked the players they actually selected more than the safeties, linebackers, or an interior lineman who were on the board each time the team’s name came on the clock.
But really, it means the Eagles are all in on their current linebacker corp; specifically Kamu Grugier-Hill.
Sure, the team added L.J. Fort in free agency to a three-year, $5.5 million deal, but at 29-years-old, the former Pittsburg Steeler has only logged three career starts versus 61 career appearances and may be more of a 4-3 base linebacker, as opposed to a three-down player.
Grugier-Hill, on the other hand, played roughly 32 percent of the Eagles’ defensive snaps last season and logged 10 starts at weakside linebacker, and looks like the obvious choice to ascend to a more prominent role on the team in 2019.
A college box safety at Eastern Illinois, where he was teammates with current San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, Grugier-Hill flew up the draft board after running a 4.45 at his Pro Day and quickly rose up the ranks from a 2016 waiver wire claim, to a special teams ace, to one of the team’s five captains in 2018.
And now, more than ever, the Eagles will have to rely on him as an every-down player alongside incumbent starter Nigel Bradham.
While this may seem crazy for old-school football fans, as for the longest time, having three linebackers on the field at minimum was the norm, in the modern-day NFL, where defenses deploy a five defensive back front roughly 70 percent of the time, and teams really only need two starting caliber linebacker at any given time.
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Clearly the Eagles see Grugier-Hill as a player who can take on a more significant workload in 2019, and without a better option on the roster, he’ll need to if Jim Schwartz‘s front seven is going to remain potent without Jordan Hicks in the fold moving forward.