Eagles Mailbag: How Confident Is Philadelphia in the Current Situation at CB2?
The Philadelphia Eagles managed to have an eventful last few days after trading Bryce Huff to the San Francisco 49ers. Now Eagles general manager Howie Roseman has two open roster spots to fill and the team has a few more practices to complete during the remainder of OTAs.
While many are speculating about which players Roseman might add to the roster, there are also questions remaining about several players that are already on Philadelphia’s roster. I’ll dive into that and much more in the latest edition of my weekly Eagles Mailbag!
With Quinyon Mitchell cemented as CB1 on the outside and Cooper DeJean remaining at slot CB in nickel formations, the Eagles have an open competition at CB2 between Kelee Ringo and Adoree’ Jackson. While Ringo has shown flashes at times, he has only started a handful of games. Jackson is a proven veteran with plenty of starting experience, yet his best days are clearly behind him.
It certainly feels like Ringo’s job to lose at this point. Philadelphia traded up to select him in the fourth round of the 2023 NFL Draft and have spent time developing him over his first two seasons in the league. Now it’s time for Ringo to prove that he was worth it and I believe that he will do just that.
Back in 2023, I was clamoring for the Eagles to give Ringo a chance to start down the stretch, which they eventually did. In five career starts, Ringo has allowed just four receptions on nine targets for 20 yards, one touchdown and one interception, according to Pro Football Focus.
Now Ringo will have a chance to earn a full-time starting job for an entire season. While he should win the job, Jackson has also shown enough to be an Isaiah Rodgers-esque level replacement if called upon to play as well.
This is going to continue to be the $50 million question for Cooper DeJean and the Eagles. All you have to do is look at what the Houston Texans did this offseason. Houston signed outside CB Derek Stingley to a three-year, $90 million contract. Meanwhile, Houston signed slot CB Jalen Pitre to a three-year, $39 million contract.
While DeJean has said all of the right things about his willingness to play wherever he is needed, that could change in the future. It’s clear that there is a significant drop-off in pay between outside CB and slot CB.
Maybe that’s why we’re starting to see DeJean take snaps at outside CB in base defense during OTAs. While he won’t make the move to full-time outside CB in 2025, it could happen before he is eligible to sign his next contract.
It feels like Jihaad Campbell and Drew Mukuba are the obvious answers here so I won’t talk much about them. But I’d like to highlight three other players that could have significant roles:
Ty Robinson is going to play an important role along the defensive line as he’ll likely fill Moro Ojomo’s former role. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Robinson play 400+ snaps as a rookie.
Azeez Ojulari will likely be the third player in Philadelphia’s rotation on the edge behind Nolan Smith and Jalyx Hunt. If Ojulari can stay healthy in 2025, there’s a chance that he could eclipse the double-digit sack mark once again.
Harrison Bryant isn’t talked about much but he offers a more complete skillset than Grant Calcaterra does due to his blocking ability. It’s essentially a guarantee that Dallas Goedert will miss multiple games and Bryant could carve out a role at TE before that even happens.
The Eagles were willing to trade Kenny Pickett because of their confidence level in Tanner McKee to be the team’s QB2. McKee has shown flashes when called upon and I believe it’s the right call to give him that job in 2025.
The “competition” between Dorian Thompson-Robinson and Kyle McCord seems like an easy decision to me. They selected McCord in the 2025 NFL Draft for a reason and he appears to offer significantly more upside as a passer than “DTR” does at this point. I would be surprised if McCord didn’t make the team’s final 53-man roster.
One player that I mentioned in a recent article is Buffalo Bills edge rusher A.J. Epenesa. He’s heading into the final year of his current contract and Buffalo has made several significant commitments elsewhere on the edge this offseason.
Epenesa is a former second-round pick that has recorded six or more sacks in each of the last three seasons. The 26-year-old feels like a player that Roseman would possibly target.
This right here is why Roseman is paid the big bucks, right? Philadelphia’s roster is loaded with talent at certain positions and Roseman will have to figure out how to carefully manage those situations during final cuts.
One move that Roseman has often utilized is the phantom IR maneuver, which he used on Ainias Smith in 2024. It would not surprise me to see a rookie such as Cameron Williams or Hollin Pierce magically suffer an “injury” during the final preseason game.
In my game-by-game predictions for the Eagles, I had Philadelphia finishing with a final record of 12-5. The Eagles got relatively lucky with injuries last season and they’ll be facing a much tougher schedule in 2025. 12 wins feels like a solid projection given the situation.
We started talking in March of 2023 as we just shared a mutual respect for each other’s content. I always appreciated his approach to creating Eagles video content with the mix of sarcasm, movie clips, etc.
Then in November of 2023, Josh asked if I wanted to join him for a video to talk about the Eagles. Since then, our friendship has continued to grow and it just felt like the right time to start a project and officially begin working together this offseason.