Latest Eagles Rumors on Nakobe Dean, Jaelan Phillips, More Ahead of NFL Free Agency

Don't be surprised if the Philadelphia Eagles find a way to re-sign edge-rusher Jaelan Phillips, one of the top available players on the free agency market.

The Athletic's Brooks Kubena appeared on Wedneday's Scoop City and noted that "edge-rusher is a priority position" for the Eagles and said he believes retaining Phillips is their ideal scenario (starts at 3:15 mark).

"I think one of the priorities for the Eagles is that they like knowing what they have on their roster," he noted. "They value that, seeing Phillips behind the scenes and how that worked out. Because you look back at what the impetus was to get Phillips, they had a splash signing in Bryce Huff that didn't work out. He came in, there were questions about how he was gonna play around the edge, and then by the Super Bowl [in the 2024 season] he was inactive. A healthy scratch. And you don't want that situation going into the next season, now you have to trade for Phillips. They do not want that happening again.

He added that general manager Howie Roseman likes that Phillips is in his prime at 26 and not only played well for the Eagles during his half-season stint (two sacks, four tackles for loss, seven quarterback hits in eight games), but also emerged as a strong leader. The downside is that Phillips has a long injury history, which makes signing him to a lucrative, long-term contract a risky endeavor.

There's also the reality that re-signing Phillips would make it harder to retain internal free agents like linebacker Nakobe Dean, safety Reed Blankenship and tight end Dallas Goedert. Kubena noted that he believes Dean will likely sign elsewhere, both for cost-cutting reasons and because the Eagles have Zack Baun and Jihaad Campbell available at the position.

Dean has been fantastic over the past two seasons when healthy (183 tackles in 25 games), and his own injury history could potentially dampen his market enough for the Eagles to retain him. But it seems likely that he'll be on the move.