Philadelphia Eagles: Zach Brown is criminally underrated
After being graded the third-best linebacker in football last season, Zach Brown had to wait two months before being signed by the Philadelphia Eagles.
When you think of the best linebackers in the NFL obvious names like Bobby Wagner, Luke Kuechly, and Deion Jones may come to mind, but what if I were to tell you that a Philadelphia Eagles free agent signee should actually be in that conversation.
It’s not as crazy as it might sound.
According to Pro Football Focus in their video debating which player deserves a higher rating, Wagner or Kuechly, Zach Brown (no, not that one) finished out the 2018 season as the third highest overall ranked linebacker in the league, higher than more well-known players like Leighton Vander Esch, Jaylon Smith, and, well, literally every other inside linebacker in the league (check it out here).
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Known mostly for his supreme prowess when dropped into coverage, Brown finished out the 2018 season with an almost identical rating against both the run and against the pass (84.4 vs. 84.1). While he’s not a marquee name, and may not have even started for Washington if he remained with the team due to their sheer volume of inside linebackers (that is before Reuben Foster tore his ACL in OTAs), Brown is the prototypical inside linebacker in a scheme that values read and react players over inside rushers.
That pretty much fits Jim Schwartz‘s philosophy to a T, especially when you consider they share the infamous Buffalo connection that funneled so many players to the City of Brotherly Love back in 2016-17.
Now the duo technically never teamed up before, just missing each other both in Tennessee and in Buffalo, but on paper, there are very few linebackers who are better fits at the Mike position in a Schwartz-coached scheme than Brown.
And amazingly enough, the Eagles were able to sign him two months into free agency for basically nothing.
On May 7th, the Eagles signed Brown to a one-year, $1.5 million deal. While that isn’t a whole lot of money for a 29-year-old linebacker entering his eighth year in the league, the Eagles were able to sign their former divisional rival without having to mess with their compensatory draft picks.
Adding a ‘defensive quarterback’ who will in all likelihood play the majority of the team’s defensive snaps for about 1/100th of Carson Wentz‘s new extension is pretty amazing when you really think about it.
Now one could argue which player will have a better season, Brown or Jordan Hicks, the player he’s replacing, but in 2019, and 2019 alone, it’s hard to look at the move and not declare it a slight upgrade at best, or a wash at worst.
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Will he finally earn the long-term deal he pined for upon being released by Washington back on March 13th? Only time will tell, but after failing to land a starting caliber linebacker in either the initial wave of free agency or in the draft, once and future GM Howie Roseman should be lauded for adding a top-3 linebacker for pennies on the dollar while keeping his assets firmly intact. Bravo Philadelphia Eagles, bravo.