Philadelphia Eagles: L.J. Fort has become a player in Baltimore

After being waived four games into a three-year contract with the Philadelphia Eagles, L.J. Fort has been a surprisingly effective defender for the Baltimore Ravens.

While Zach Brown‘s release after a horrible Week 5 showing against his former teammate Kirk Cousins and the Minnesota Vikings may remain fresh in the minds of fans – especially after the run defense’s collapse in Week 7 – he was actually the second linebacker the Philadelphia Eagles released mid-season in 2019.

What, you forgot about L.J. Fort? Well, you shouldn’t feel too bad, as it felt like the Eagles did too over his abbreviated tenure with the team.

You see, despite losing starting middle linebacker Jordan Hicks in free agency to the Arizona Cardinals without a suitable replacement in the pipeline, the Eagles opted against signing a marquee free agent to fill his shoes. Instead, Howie Roseman and company chose to take a chance on a part-time subpackage performer who’d most recently spent time with the Pittsburgh Steelers to compete for an expanded role.

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The deal? Three-years for $5.5 million with $1.9 million guaranteed.

Now those numbers are incredibly team-friendly, as Hicks is set to make $34 million over the next four years, but maybe that isn’t a great thing. In the NFL, players – and their agents – typically know what their players are worth. While hometown discounts are a thing, accepting a deal worth $1.8 million annually to be a full-time starter just doesn’t happen ever.

Roseman is a shrewd negotiator, but even he can’t pull that off.

And yet, despite that red flag, and the eventual decision to sign Zach Brown months and months after free agency opened, it still seemed like Fort had an inside track to play on the defensive side of the ball – in addition to his special teams prowess.

But through four games, that didn’t happen.

Despite having starting weakside linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill sidelined with an MCL tear and no true reserve with legitimate NFL experience, Fort earned exactly zero defensive snaps over the month of September. While he never earned a DNP and amassed 75 snaps on special teams, it became crystal clear the 29-year-old was not in Jim Schwartz‘s plans moving forward.

Fort-unately, L.J. didn’t have to wait too long for another opportunity to see the field in a meaningful way.

After being released after Week 4 to make room for (now) public enemy number one Orlando Scandrick (more on him here), Fort latched on with the Baltimore Ravens in the lead up to their eventual trade of former fourth-round pick Kenny Young to the Los Angeles Rams, and has steadily found his way onto the field at his natural position with more and more frequency.

No longer relegated to just playing special teams – though he has still played an average of 21 snaps in each of the last three games – Fort has become a solid contributor to John Harbaugh‘s defense as the team’s starting will linebacker.

Yup, you read that correctly: Fort went from being a nonfactor on a bad defense to a starter on a top-flight front.

Ouch.

Paired up with Josh Bynes in place of injured starter Patrick Onwuasor, Fort has amassed eight tackles, a pass defensed, and a sack in three games of action – the third-best statistical season of his near-decade-long career (yes, seriously).

dark. Next. Orlando Scandrick’s criticism is completely justified

Now would L.J. Fort have been an upgrade over the team’s currently motley crew of UDFA rookies and unproven reserves? Maybe so, but the sheer fact that Jim Schwartz never even gave a player Howie Roseman locked into a bargain-bin three-year contract a single defensive snap over four injury-stifled games is a visible identifier of just how reactionary the Philadelphia Eagles have been so far this season – when compared to the play of Brown, could Fort have been that much worse?

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