Eagles lose Edwards in opening minutes of free agency first and predominant looked on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Eagles lost valued inner linebacker T.J. Edwards to the Bears in the opening minutes of free agency Monday.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Community reported that Edwards and the Bears had agreed to a 3-year, $19.5 million contract with $12 million assured lawful 15 minutes into the apt tampering length, which opened at noon. No deals will even be finalized till 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Losing Edwards is the first of what is going on to seemingly be several spacious blows to the NFL’s No. 2 defense.
MORE: High Eagles storylines heading into 2023 NFL free agency
Edwards had a occupation year in 2022 and became once the 4th-perfect rated linebacker in the NFL at some stage in the neatly-liked season in keeping with Pro Football Focal point with an 84.8 grade. He became once ninth as a tear defender [83.4], fifth as a pass rusher [81.0] and 10th in coverage [79.7].
Edwards, who made the Eagles in 2019 as an undrafted rookie out of Wisconsin, earned about $4.2 million in his four seasons with the Eagles.
Though this deal within reason modest, averaging $6.5 million per year, it does build him amongst the high-30 perfect-paid linebackers in the league in 2023 in keeping with moderate annual wage, although that can obviously crawl down as other avid gamers set.
In Chicago, Edwards will play for head coach Matt Eberflus, who became once on Frank Reich’s Colts workers from 2018 through 2020 with Gash Sirianni.
The Bears haven’t had a winning season since 2018 and went 3-14 final year with the 32nd-ranked defense in the NFL.
Edwards, 26, has started 47 of 54 video games for the Eagles over the last three years, and this previous year wore the golf green dot helmet that enabled him to relay play calls from defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon to the opposite avid gamers on the defense.
Edwards became once a Gannon favourite, but with Sean Desai now taking on the defense most definitely the urgency for the Eagles to re-set Edwards wasn’t as substantial.
Loads of key Eagles defensive avid gamers who hit free agency Monday comprise Javon Hargrave, James Bradberry, Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, Fletcher Cox and Kyzir White.
With Edwards gone and White hitting free agency, the most attention-grabbing off-ball linebackers the Eagles obtain underneath contract for 2023 are Nakobe Dean, Shaun Bradley, Davion Taylor and Christian Ellis.
Dean is anticipated to bewitch over one initiating convey in 2023, but it undoubtedly remains to be viewed who the opposite starter will seemingly be.
The Eagles haven’t drafted a linebacker in the first two rounds since Mychal Kendricks in 2012, and so that they haven’t drafted one in the first round since Jerry Robinson in 1979.
