10 Eagles Who Will Be Cut by Tuesday’s Roster Deadline
4. Justin Evans
Three roster spots are very clear at safety. Terrell Edmunds, Reed Blankenship and Sydney Brown are obviously making the roster. But do we carry four or five safeties?
My prediction is that the Eagles will only keep four safeties, and that final spot comes down to K’Von Wallace or Justin Evans.
Before training camp, I had it being Evans. Injuries have held him back, but it was really starting to look like Wallace had plateaued in a way that didn’t make him worth keeping around. But he proved me wrong.
Wallace has looked very good in the preseason so far, and that started right from the first game:
NFL Preseason Week 1 SAF Ratings (Per PFF / Min 10 Snaps):
— Al Karsten (@bigalfredosauce) August 14, 2023
1. CIN Tycen Anderson - 97.3
2. CLV Bubba Bolden - 92.4
3. PHI K'Von Wallace - 90.4
16. DET Brandon Joseph - 78.5
18. DET Brian Branch - 77.2
33. Ifeatu Melifonwu - 70.2
If the eye test isn’t enough for you, he also graded out very well according to Pro Football Focus.
Evans received no such love from PFF, earning some pretty brutal grades in the low 50s in each of the first two games.
This is a make-or-break year for Wallace, and that will continue into the season. But for Evans, he could be nearing the end of the line in his NFL career.
You hate to see injuries derail a guy who was once a very promising second-round pick, but he didn’t look right in 2022 and had a pretty underwhelming training camp. Soon to be 28 years old, not many teams are going to be willing to gamble on Evans reaching that potential he once showed.