Say Haloti to the Eagles’ backup plan.
We learned earlier this week that Eagles’ starting defensive tackle Tim Jernigan had surgery to repair a herniated disc and now we’ve learned he’s in serious jeopardy of missing the season opener and possibly more (see story).
That means the Eagles are going to need to lean even more on 34-year-old free agent pickup Haloti Ngata.
Ngata signed with the Eagles on a one-year, $3 million deal in March and was expected to be a solid veteran backup for Fletcher Cox and Jernigan. Now, he’ll probably need to be the Eagles’ starter next to Fletcher Cox to begin the season … and maybe longer.
While he was once a perennial Pro Bowler, Ngata (6-4, 345) is coming off an injury-shortened season in Detroit. While Ngata didn’t play long, his impact was felt, especially against the run. There were other factors sure, but with him, the Lions gave up an average of 74.6 yards per game on the ground and 129.7 yards per game without him.
Ngata was one of a few aging veterans the Eagles signed this offseason, banking on the hope that they’re still fully invested in playing and chasing a ring, not just chasing a last paycheck.
“They have a desire to win,” Howie Roseman said at this year’s owners meetings, when asked how they know their veterans still have fire. “They maybe, in the past couple of years, haven’t won as much as they wanted to, so they still have this desire and this goal to win again. You see that with our team too. Nobody is in there just going, ‘hey we won one Super Bowl, let’s mail it in, in 2018.’ But for us, it goes back to the background and trying to figure out guys.”
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The Eagles will probably still want to keep Ngata as fresh as possible, even with an expanded role. The good news there is that he probably won’t be on the field on third downs.
Last year, the Eagles used Brandon Graham (and occasionally Vinny Curry) as a third-down interior pass rusher. It was a way to get another rusher on the field, bringing either Chris Long or Derek Barnett or both onto the field in passing situation. Expect the Eagles to do that even more this year after adding Michael Bennett earlier this offseason. Bennett played plenty of downs inside in Seattle, likely one of the qualities that drew the Eagles to him.
Bennett can also play a ton. Last season, he played 931 defensive snaps; the top snap-getter on the Eagles was Graham with 666.
Bennett is also in the midst of an ongoing legal situation, so we’ll see how that plays out as well.
Even without Jernigan, the Eagles are going to rotate on the defensive line. It’s just one of those principles Jim Schwartz believes in. So who are the defensive tackles after Ngata? There’s not a ton of depth. Beau Allen, who ended up basically splitting reps with Jernigan in the second half of last season and in the playoffs, left in free agency to join the Bucs. So there are just four defensive tackles after Ngata left.
Destiny Vaeao is next on the depth chart. In his second NFL season, Vaeao played 230 snaps (22 percent) last season, but just 11 in three playoff games. The former undrafted free agent isn’t great, but is at least steady and knows the defense.
Elijah Qualls, entering his second year after being a sixth-round pick in 2017, played minimally as a rookie (103 snaps).
After that, the Eagles have Winston Craig and Aziz Shittu, two guys who have never played before.
So unless another move comes soon, expect Ngata to fill most of the void.