Philadelphia Eagles: Whatever happened to Eric Rowe?

After being traded to the New England Patriots in September of 2016, whatever happened to ex-Philadelphia Eagles’ second-round pick Eric Rowe?

At the time, the 2015 NFL Draft, the first helmed by de facto GM Chip Kelly, looked transformational for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Adding four conceivable day-one starters including wide receiver in Nelson Agholor in the first round, middle linebacker Jordan Hicks in the third, and slot corner JaCorey Shepherd in the sixth, it looked like the Eagles were set up for success for years to come.

And of these players, none had a higher upside than Eric Rowe.

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A four-year performer at Utah, spending his first three seasons at free safety before transitioning to outside cornerback as a senior, Rowe blew up at the NFL combine by running a 4.45 40 and finishing in the top-5 in every other test across the board (seriously). Dubbed a sure-fire starter at pretty much any position across the defensive secondary save maybe slot corner due to his tight hips, it wasn’t unrealistic to imagine Rowe becoming a shutdown man-press cornerback in Billy Davis‘ 3-4 scheme.

But fast forward one calendar year, and suddenly everything changed.

After appearing in all 16 games for the Eagles in 2015, including five starts, Rowe dropped to pretty much the bottom of new defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz‘s playmaker-focused scheme, losing snaps to Buffalo transplants like Leodis McKelvin and Ron Brooks who wouldn’t play for another team when their Eagles tenures ended.

Rowe fell so out of favor the with the Birds that Howie Roseman traded the then-24-year-old to the New England Patriots for a conditional fourth-round pick and could become a third depending on his playing time (it didn’t).

But then what happened?

Well, Rowe played out his rookie deal with the Patriots, appearing in 37 regular season games with 17 starts. Rowe also played in six playoff games, three in 2016 and three in 2017.

Fans with a keen memory and keener eyes will probably remember Rowe playing in Super Bowl 52 in place of typical starter Malcolm Butler, facing off against Alshon Jeffery in the Eagles’ eventual win.

While Rowe never quite became a full-time starter, as he was never able to outplay the likes of Butler, Logan Ryan, Stephon Gilmore, or Jason McCourty, he did become a bit of a swiss army knife for the Patriots; matching up against bigger wide receivers and more athletic tight ends.

However, this sort of player, someone who may play a lot one game and none in the next, is pretty hard to value, and when Rowe hit free agency, the Patriots simply let him walk.

With strange tape and consistent track record at any one position, the 26-year-old wasn’t in particularly high demand in free agency; signing a one-year, $3.5 million deal with ex-Patriots defensive assistant Brian Flores and the Miami Dolphins.

Now the Dolphins aren’t exactly barren at cornerback, as they just signed a pair of their own, slot corner Bobby McCain and outside corner Xavien Howard to top-of-the-market deals, but there is an outside slot up for grabs, especially with 2017 third-round pick Cordrea Tankersley still recovering from a torn ACL.

Next. Extending Malcolm Jenkins should be a no-brainer. dark

So, depending on how this summer goes, there’s a very real possibility that Eric Rowe could be a starting cornerback on the Miami Dolphins when the 2019 regular season begins, a pretty crazy result when you consider that the Philadelphia Eagles gave up on him after only one season back in 2016.

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