Philadelphia Eagles: One T.J. is better than none

The Philadelphia 76ers made a mistake by not extending T.J. McConnell.

Sure, the undrafted free agent didn’t have ideal athleticism and lacked the sort of flashy upside many clamor for in a long-term, foundational player, but it’s hard to argue that McConnell didn’t find ways to impact games whenever he took the court.

After failing to come to terms on a long-term extension with his first professional team, McConnell left the bright lights of the City of Brotherly Love for the basketball mecca of Indiana, where he’s played well enough to garner a new four-year, $35 million extension that will allow him to continue to pick off passes and harass ball handlers for years to come.

Do the Sixers regret letting the pride of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania go? Probably not, as that decision was made by Elton Brand, not Daryl Morey, but it certainly would be nice to roll into any given game with the point guard one-two punch of Tyrese Maxey and T.J. McConnell instead of Shake Milton having to moonlight as a lead guard for double-digit minutes each night.

Why, you may ask, is this relevant on this, a Philadelphia Eagles article? Well, because Howie Roseman learned from Elton Brand’s mistakes and kept his game-changing UDFA free agent by the name of T.J. around on a one-year extension not even 24 hours after turning in his best game as a pro.

The Philadelphia Eagles have an extra season to evaluate a promising young LB.

Week 11 of the 2021 NFL season marked T.J. Edwards‘ 40th game as a member of the Philadelphia Eagles.

A UDFA high school quarterback-turned-college linebacker at the University of Wisconsin, Edwards joined a linebacking corps fresh off the loss of Jordan Hicks and was gradually worked into action as a rotational base package linebacker six weeks into his rookie season, playing an average of 16.5 percent of the team’s defensive snaps over the final 11 weeks of the season.

From there, Edwards took on a bigger role in 2020, where he started every game he was active for and looked encouraging, even if he wasn’t an ideal fit in Jim Schwartz’s scheme.

Had Edwards been allowed to hit the open market at the end of the 2020 NFL season, it’s hard to imagine what sort of offers the former Badger would have fielded. Who knows, maybe he’d still be an Eagle today, maybe he’d be playing the WILL spot in a 3-4 scheme, or he’d become a special team-only player like fellow not-so-athletic collegiate standout Tyler Matakevich.

Fortunately, Edward’s UDFA deal extended through 2021, and thus he was eventually afforded an opportunity to play middle linebacker after the mid-season release of up-to-that-point starter Eric Wilson.

So far, so good.

Now granted, it’s not like Edwards hadn’t earned playing time and even starts for the Eagles before Wilson’s release. He’d started five of the first seven games of the season and played roughly 40 percent of the team’s snaps over that tenure, but once Week 8 rolled around, Edwards was on the field for an average of 60 snaps per game and found consistent ways to make plays in each contest.

In his new role as an every-down middle linebacker, Edwards has amassed 44 combined tackles, three tackles for loss, three passes defensed, an interception, and a fumble recovery. He helped to shore up the run defense upfront, kept good positioning in the open field, and even played fairly well dropped into coverage on the back end, even if he’s still given up a few big plays in coverage, like Adam Troutman’s touchdown in Week 11.

In an ideal world, would the Eagles want to upgrade that spot with a more athletic option? Someone who runs a low 4.5 instead of a 4.89 and had an athletic spider chart that looks more like Kenneth Murray than, well, than a high school quarterback playing middle linebacker in the NFL but it’s hard to argue that Edwards doesn’t put the team in a better position to succeed than virtually any other player on the roster right now, even if he needs to be hidden in coverage ever so slightly if tasked with covering a tight end like Darren Waller.

Or, hear me out here, maybe, just maybe, Jonathan Gannon should bite the bullet and start to run some dime defense on obvious passing downs against four wide receivers instead of hoping linebackers don’t end up on slot receivers in zone coverage. I don’t know, just an idea.

Is T.J. Edwards the Philadelphia Eagles’ next great middle linebacker? Maybe, maybe not; I don’t think even Howie Roseman knows the answer to that one. But by signing him to an extension after his best game as a pro instead of waiting for the offseason to engage the restricted free agent’s representatives, the Eagles are hoping to see a T.J. McConnell-esque come up before he becomes eligible for an even bigger extension in the not too distant future. Eh, I guess one T.J. is better than none.