The offseason theme for Howie Roseman continued Thursday when the Eagles agreed to bring in defensive tackle Kentavius Street on a one-year deal.
Originally a fourth-round pick by San Francisco in 2018, Street missed his rookie season with a torn ACL injury suffered during his Pro Day at North Carolina State. Set to turn 27 in May, Street recovered to play 35 games with four starts on a very good 49ers defense through his rookie contract.
He moved on to New Orleans last season where he had a key rotational role on the Saints’ defensive line, playing in 46 percent of the defensive snaps and amassing 3 1/2 sacks five tackles for loss, and eight QB hits. The book on Street, who is undersized at 6-foot-2 and 287 pounds, is that he’s a better pass rusher than run defender and he had three sacks, six TFLs, and five QB hits during his final season with the 49ers so he’s got 6 1/2 sacks over the past two seasons.
Pro Football Focus graded out Street at just No. 102 of the 127 interior defensive linemen who played enough to be rated. He was 117 out of 143 vs. the run and a more respectable 57 of 92 as a pass rusher.
Street is the latest in a series of mid-20s players the Eagles have signed to one-year, cost-effective deals that the organization believes have upsides that have yet to be tapped into like RB Rashaad Penny, LB Nick Morrow, CB Greedy Williams and safeties Justin Evans and Terrell Edmunds. Some like Penny, Williams, Evand and now Street have dealt with injuries that have stunted development.
“When you’re looking at these one-year guys, you want some high-upside guys, guys who have traits in their bodies, guys who we had a like for at some point in time,” Roseman said at the NFL’s annual meetings earlier this week “They’re young guys who have a lot of upside. I think we like these kind of high-upside-guys, lottery tickets with the understanding that they’ve got to prove it. They have a chip on their shoulder. They have talent. It hasn’t worked out perfectly where they are and if you can hit on some of those guys it’s mutually beneficial.”
The Eagles lost starting DT Javon Hargrave, one of the best interior rushers in football, to a big-money deal with San Francisco and aren’t expected to bring back aging veterans Linval Joseph or Ndamukong Suh.
The unit is led by veteran Fletcher Cox, who re-signed on a one-year deal for $10 million, 2022 first-round pick Jordan Davis, Milton Williams, Marlon Tuipulotu, Marvin Wilson, and Noah Elliss.
