Ranking the Eagles' 7 Most Important Pending Free Agents

4. Zach Cunningham

Back to the linebacker position, Zach Cunningham didn't excel in any one area more than Nicholas Morrow did against the run. But he's more versatile by a massive margin, and that makes him harder to replace and more important to re-sign.

Cunningham missed four games due to injury and had two more in which his snaps were limited, but outside of that he played 70% or more of the defensive snaps in each game. That included being on the field for every single defensive play the Eagles ran against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC Wild Card game.

Obviously the defense struggled in that one, but the blame there doesn't land on Cunningham.

Not being as good a run defender as Morrow doesn't mean he didn't excel in that area, racking up 35 stops on his 66 solo tackles (again, despite not playing the full season). He's not just good enough at stopping the run to be able to play on early downs, but he's a plus defender in that area.

What makes him more valuable than Morrow is that he's also a plus in coverage. He only allowed 5.4 yards per target when thrown at in coverage on the season, while Morrow gave up 7.1. That included 58 snaps where he was defending as a slot corner and even 16 snaps where he ended up following a running back or tight end to line up as the outside corner. Some linebackers can't make it work when they're out in space like that, but Cunningham held his own.

He was the most important piece of the Eagles' linebacking corps in 2023, and re-signing Cunningham should be a no-brainer.