Philadelphia Eagles: Waiving struggling Linebacker Eric Wilson was the right call

In a not-so-surprising move, the Philadelphia Eagles have waived linebacker, Eric Wilson. The five-year veteran was in the midst of a season that saw him perform particularly poorly, especially in pass coverage. The Eagles had signed Wilson back on April 14th to a fully guaranteed $2.75M deal; just over six months later, he’s back on the open market.

Wilson’s on-the-field struggles were clear to see, and it became clear that one way or another, the Eagles were going to be moving on. The clearest evidence of this was Wilson’s inactive status for Sunday’s game against the Detroit Lions.

Some speculated that Wilson may be on the trade block, and that possibly was the case, but he clearly had no market as the rest of the league had seen the same Eric Wilson as the Philadelphia Eagles’ fans did. The same Eric Wilson that gave up an 85.7 percent completion percentage to opposing quarterbacks. With Wilson’s poor on-the-field play, the news out of Philadelphia today was far from surprising.

The Philadelphia Eagles have waived struggling Linebacker Eric Wilson.

Wilson is now gone, and the Eagles must look to the future to prepare the remaining linebackers for the rest of the season and so that they do not repeat the same mistakes in free agency this offseason. Thankfully, the team’s linebacking corps looked much improved, albeit against a miserable Detroit Lions offense.

Expect some more snaps for Davion Taylor and especially TJ Edwards, who finished Sunday’s game with 13 tackles, including two tackles for loss. Who knows? Fans may even see K’Von Wallace play in the box a bit more.

The major takeaway from Wilson’s release is that the Eagles once again did a poor job investing in the linebacker position, one they clearly do not value. Will that ever change? Will the Eagles ever invest legitimate money or draft capital in a talented linebacker? Who knows, but the outlook isn’t too promising under General Manager Howie Roseman.