Eagles News: Zach Brown Agrees to 1-Year Contract to Join PHI
May 3, 2019
The Philadelphia Eagles announced they signed free-agent linebacker Zach Brown to a one-year deal on Friday.
Pro Football Talk reported the contract is worth $3 million.
Brown took to both Twitter and Instagram to celebrate the deal:
The move comes after the 29-year-old was released by Washington following a two-year run in the nation's capital. The move helped the team clear $5.75 million in cap space.
Brown previously spent four years with the Tennessee Titans and one year with the Buffalo Bills.
He has been one of the busiest linebackers in the NFL in recent seasons, averaging 124 tackles a season over the last three years. He is coming off a 2018 campaign that saw him pile up 96 tackles, one sack, two forced fumbles and one pass breakup.
Brown had an all-around solid performance last year. As Pro Football Focus' Mark Chichester noted, he was just one of three linebackers to record a PFF grade of 80.0-plus in run defense, coverage and tackling. The Carolina Panthers' Luke Kuechly and the Seattle Seahawks' Bobby Wagner were the only other two to achieve that feat.
Pro Football Focus @PFFZach Brown was the highest-graded free agent left, regardless of position. He put up career-highs in overall, run-defense and tackle grade last season with Washington, missing just 4 of his 95 total attempts last year. He joins the #Eagles as 2018's third highest-graded LB. https://t.co/GI0qVr3P5j
Furthermore, Brown has made a major impact in stopping the run in recent years. Per Chichester, his 95 defensive stops against the run are third-most by a linebacker over the last three seasons.
It was in the North Carolina product's previous stop, Buffalo, that he recorded a career-high 149 tackles in 2016. Although he has three seasons with four-plus sacks, he has just 3.5 sacks over the past two seasons combined.
Washington reportedly shopped Brown prior to his release, but with two years and $14.25 million remaining on the deal he signed in 2018, there were no takers.
Instead, Philadelphia decided to wait Washington out and make a run at the linebacker when he hit the open market.