Are the Philadelphia Eagles Filling Holes as Swiftly as They're Digging Them?

When the Philadelphia Eagles started unloading veteran players and their unwieldy contracts in the lead-up to free agency, it was widely speculated the club would spend to fill many of those holes.  It’s been a couple of days since the market opened, however, and plenty of vacancies remain.

The Eagles made a splash at cornerback by signing Byron Maxwell to a $60 million deal, but they went cheap on the opposite side, adding oft-injured Walter Thurmond to compete for the No. 2 job. They have yet to locate a safety to start next to Malcolm Jenkins in a rebuilding secondary, and options are growing thin.

It increasingly appears the team will attempt to fill the opening at right guard from within or at the draft. And now that Jeremy Maclin was allowed to bolt for a huge payday elsewhere, wide receiver unexpectedly went from being a position of strength to one of potential weakness.

PLAYER	POSITION	AGE
Kiko Alonso	ILB	24
Sam Bradford	QB	27
Brad Jones	ILB	28
Ryan Mathews	RB	27
Byron Maxwell	CB	28
Walter Thurmond	CB	27

Meanwhile, the Birds have also decided to allocate some of their salary-cap space in strange ways.

According to Spotrac, Philadelphia added $13 million to the books when it acquired quarterback Sam Bradford in a trade, a sum the St. Louis Rams were no longer willing to pay for the signal-caller’s services.

And with Ryan Mathews already expected to join Darren Sproles in the backfield, ESPN's Adam Schefter reports the Eagles are set to host reigning rushing champion DeMarco Murray, who if signed would complete one expensive trio of ball-carriers.

The Murray business is particularly weird. Granted, the Eagles may have an opportunity to steal a talented running back out from under a division rival’s nose—the NFC East champion Dallas Cowboys—possibly at less than market value. On the other hand, Murray is a luxury when the roster clearly has other needs.

With free agency already beginning to wind down, it looks like the Eagles are both eating through cap room and running out of viable solutions.

Actually, this isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the world. Teams that win in March aren’t necessarily the same teams that win in January. The overwhelming majority of free agents are somehow flawed or never would have been available in the first place. Stockpiling players this way does not come highly recommended.

Plus, the Eagles can still look to the draft to hopefully fill some holes, or at least create competition at key positions. And with two blockbuster trades already completed this month alone, head coach Chip Kelly has demonstrated there are other avenues to finding talent in his first offseason with full control over personnel.

Then again, for all the moves that Kelly has made, there does seem to be as much uncertainty across the roster as there was when the regular season ended, if not more.

PLAYER	POSITION	AGE
Nate Allen (FA)	S	27
Trent Cole	OLB	32
Bradley Fletcher (FA)	CB	28
Nick Foles	QB	26
Todd Herremans	RG	32
Jeremy Maclin	WR	26
LeSean McCoy	RB	26
Cary Williams	CB	30

It’s difficult to say the Eagles are definitively better off now than they were in 2014 at many positions.

Interior linebacker, for sure, provided Kiko Alonso—who arrived from Buffalo in the LeSean McCoy trade—recovers from a torn ACL. Maybe at cornerback, by default, although it’s still unclear who will line up opposite Maxwell. Perhaps at quarterback, if Bradford can live up to his potential in Kelly’s offense and stay healthy, but we’re not really projecting it. Running back, if Murray signs, yet unnecessarily so.

It’s not as if the doors are about to shut on free agency and player movement, either. The Eagles will be tinkering with the roster all the way through training camp, right up to opening day 2015.

However, other than the draft and barring another trade, chances are there are only mid-level moves left to be made, the kind that aren’t necessarily going to solve problems.

You can’t entirely blame Philadelphia for not matching the offer Maclin received from the Kansas City Chiefs, but the fact is the offense is down a feature receiver with no obvious replacement.

Say what you want about a released Cary Williams, but he’d look pretty good across the field from Maxwell—more comforting than the giant question mark that’s there now, anyway. Same for the eternally underrated Nate Allen at safety, which remains a mystery, as he seems poised to depart via free agency.

The Eagles have done an excellent job filling some holes this offseason, but intentional or unintentional, they’ve created quite a few others in the process. Whether they can plug all the leaks before September arrives remains to be seen.