Philadelphia Eagles: Rasul Douglas cashes in on a career-best season

The Philadelphia Eagles‘ depth chart is slowly but surely taking shape.

Sure, external free agents have been in short supply, as only Haason Reddick has chosen to take his talents to the City of Brotherly Love from somewhere else, but over the past few days, the Birds have brought back a half dozen of their own free agents, including Anthony Harris, Boston Scott, and Fletcher Cox, who spent a little over 48 hours on the open market before making his way back to Philadelphia.

Does the team still have holes? You bet, they still don’t have a player penciled in at free safety, CB2, or TE2, and could use a veteran wide receiver to help shepherd along one of the youngest position groupings in the NFL, but hey, free agency isn’t even a week old; Howie Roseman has time.

But do you want to know who doesn’t have to wait any longer to see what his future holds? That would be Philadelphia Eagles draftee Rasul Douglas, who just got paid after a star-making season with the Green Bay Packers.

At least one former Philadelphia Eagles cornerback just got paid.

Talent was never a problem for Rasul Douglas.

A third-round pick out of West Virginia who broke onto the national conversation with an eight(!) interception final season in Morgantown, Douglas was lauded by draft evaluations for his size, instincts, and ball skills but questioned his long-term NFL prospects due to his, shall we say, underwhelming speed, burst, and change-of-direction ability.

In the right scheme, one akin to the Seattle defense that made Richard Sherman a future Hall of Famer, maybe his strengths would overshadow his weaknesses, but over his initial run with the Philadelphia Eagles, Douglas was relegated to a part-time player who would find his way back to the bench more often than not after allowing a massive touchdown over the top.

Despite a comical lack of cornerback depth behind Darius Slay and then-outside cornerback Avonte Maddox, Howie Roseman let both of his Day 2 selections from the 2017 NFL Draft – Douglas and Sidney Jones – walk in the trim down to 53 and started a journeyman tour across the NFL that would eventually find Douglas turning in cheesesteaks for cheeseheads and an opportunity of a lifetime.

It all started in Carolina, where Douglas found a home in the defensive secondary of former Temple head coach Matt Rhule. He started 11 of the 14 games he appeared in, recorded 62 tackles, and played well enough to secure a new contract in Las Vegas with the Raiders in April of 2021. From there, Douglas was released by the Raiders, signed with the Texans, was released by the Texans, and then signed with the Arizona Cardinals’ practice squad, where he sat in waiting for his next opportunity to shine.

Now, as you may or may not know, 2020 and 2021 presented a unique opportunity for teams to sign older players to their expanded practice squads in an attempt to thwart the impact of COVID-19. In any previous season, veteran players would have had to wait at home for a new opportunity to present itself, but fortunately, that wasn’t the case for Douglas, as he was allowed to spend time his “transition period” in Arizona, where he learned the Cardinals’ scheme and became an attractive practice squad signee for the Packers, who played the Red Birds in Week 8.

And the rest, as they say, is history. Douglas showed up and showed out in Green Bay, picked off five passes and scored two touchdowns in route to the Packers’ first-seeded playoff run, and was awarded handsomely with a new three-year contract worth $21 million with escalators that could take the deal up to $25.5 million if all of the incentives are met.

While some may quibble with that deal, as $7 million is good money for a CB2 but a tough pill to swallow if he can’t recapture his 2021 magic over three full seasons, that’s a conversation for another day. After a weirdly promising start to his career that was almost derailed by some poor luck in 2021, it’s nice to see a Philadelphia Eagles draftee get paid, even if it’s not by Howie Roseman, the general manager of the aforementioned Philadelphia Eagles.