The Eagles Have 20 Free Agents and $18 Million — Here's the Blueprint for Rebuilding This Roster

Twenty free agents. Roughly $18 million in cap space. A wild-card exit still burning in the rearview mirror. That's the reality facing Howie Roseman as the Eagles barrel toward March and the most consequential offseason of his tenure since the post-Super Bowl LVII teardown that never quite materialized.

The 2025 Eagles weren't supposed to end like this. After a 14-3 campaign and a Super Bowl appearance the year prior, Philadelphia entered the season as NFC favorites. What they got instead was a roster ravaged by offensive line injuries, a running game that fell out of the top 15, a locker room that fractured under pressure, and a 23-19 wild-card loss to San Francisco that felt less like an upset and more like an inevitability.

Now comes the hard part: figuring out which pieces stay, which walk, and how to reconstruct a championship-caliber roster with the financial equivalent of couch cushion money.

The Phillips Problem: Pay the Man or Lose the Edge

Jaelan Phillips is the headliner, and it's not particularly close. The Eagles traded a third-round pick to Miami last November to get nine games of a 26-year-old pass rusher who immediately transformed the defensive front. Phillips brought an edge presence that had been missing since Brandon Graham's prime years — violent hands, relentless motor, the kind of guy who makes offensive tackles hate their job.

The complication is his injury history. Phillips has had multiple significant injuries, and the market will price that risk accordingly. But here's the thing: Vic Fangio's defense needs a legitimate edge threat to function at its ceiling. Nolan Smith, who was supposed to be that guy after a 10-sack stretch across his last 16 games in 2024, regressed hard — sackless through three games, then missed five with a triceps injury, finishing with just 3.0 sacks in 10 games after returning. That's fewer sacks in a full regular season than he had in three playoff games.

If Phillips walks, the Eagles are betting on a Smith bounceback and whatever they can find in free agency or the draft. That's not a bet worth making. Pay Phillips. Structure the deal to protect against injury. Move on.

The Core Four: Goedert, Dean, Blankenship, and the Soul of the Roster

Dallas Goedert, Nakobe Dean, and Reed Blankenship represent three very different roster construction questions, but they share one trait: they're the kind of players who embody what this organization says it values. Toughness. Reliability. Big-game composure.

Goedert is the most expensive of the three and the most replaceable positionally. Tight end is a buyer's market in today's NFL — you can find 70% of Goedert's production in the third round of any draft. But Goedert isn't just a pass catcher. He's one of the best blocking tight ends in football, and with Sean Mannion installing a new offensive scheme, continuity at that position matters more than the spreadsheet suggests. A team-friendly two-year deal makes sense. Anything north of $12 million annually, and the Eagles should let someone else overpay.

Dean is a priority. Full stop. The linebacker position was a wasteland in Philadelphia for years before Dean stepped into the role and gave Fangio's defense the sideline-to-sideline athleticism it demands. He's young, he's ascending, and linebackers don't command top-of-market money the way edge rushers and corners do. Lock him up for four years and don't overthink it.

Blankenship is trickier. He's a solid, dependable safety who makes the right reads and rarely gives up the explosive play. He's also not a game-changer. The safety market is soft, which works in the Eagles' favor — bring him back at a reasonable number and use your premium draft capital elsewhere.

The Depth Trap: Why Brett Toth and Fred Johnson Matter More Than You Think

This is where roster construction gets unglamorous but critical. The Eagles' offensive line — supposedly the foundation of everything — crumbled in 2025. Lane Johnson missed time. Landon Dickerson and Cam Jurgens gutted through the season at less than full strength. The run game, historically a top-five unit, cratered to the bottom 15.

Brett Toth logged 363 offensive snaps last season and started at both center and left guard. He's 29, he's versatile, and he's cheap. The Army product won two of his three starts and gave a particularly stellar showing filling in at center against the Giants. Fred Johnson started the final eight regular season games. These are the guys who keep your season alive when the starters go down, and the Eagles lost Jeff Stoutland — their legendary offensive line coach of 13 years — this offseason. New OL coach Chris Kuper inherits a room that needs every warm body it can get.

Losing both Toth and Johnson while simultaneously breaking in a new position coach would be organizational malpractice. Retain at least one, preferably both.

The Bigger Picture: Roseman's Pendulum

In his end-of-season press conference, Roseman telegraphed the direction: the pendulum swings toward defense. That's the right call. Jalen Hurts threw for 3,224 yards with a 25:6 touchdown-to-interception ratio and added 421 rushing yards with eight scores. Those numbers aren't elite, but they're efficient enough — the offense failed because the line couldn't protect or create running lanes, not because the quarterback forgot how to play.

The defense, meanwhile, showed flashes under Fangio but lacked consistent personnel. Phillips' midseason arrival proved the concept — this scheme works when you give it legitimate talent. Adoree' Jackson and Marcus Epps are among the other defensive free agents, and while neither is irreplaceable, the cumulative loss of experience matters.

Here's the bold prediction: the Eagles will restructure at least two existing contracts — likely A.J. Brown and Haason Reddick's deals — to create an additional $15-20 million in space. They'll re-sign Phillips, Dean, and Blankenship, let Goedert test the market and bring him back when no one offers more than $10 million per year, and use their draft capital to address the offensive line and secondary depth.

The Bottom Line

The Eagles don't need a teardown. They need a recalibration. The core is still there — Hurts, Brown, DeVonta Smith, the offensive line starters when healthy, a Fangio defense that showed it can dominate when properly equipped. What they need is smarter depth, a defensive identity built around Phillips and Dean, and the organizational discipline to stop treating the roster like it's one blockbuster trade away from a championship.

Twenty free agents is a lot of turnover. But turnover isn't always destruction — sometimes it's renovation. The blueprint is there. Roseman just has to follow it.