Eagles' Exec On Waiver Wire: 'It's Challenging'

You can do all the homework possible when it comes to the plans of other teams but in the end, it's an educated guess.

NovaCare Complex practice bubble / John McMullen/Eagles SI

PHILADELPHIA - According to the most recent reliable estimates, about 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by water and roughly 90% of the seafloor remains uncharted.

If there’s an uncharted world in the NFL, it might be the waiver wire, a looming Boogeyman to many fans around the league who seem to always believe the rest of the league is champing at the bit to get that fourth-string defensive back who flashed for one play in the fourth quarter of a meaningless preseason game.

In truth, claiming a bunch of players off waivers – we are looking at you Carolina, and New England – is generally a very bad sign for those organizations.

This year, a whopping 26 players were claimed across the league at the initial cut down to 53, an average of 0.81 per team with the Panthers and Pats responsible for 38.% of the original claims.

What we do know about the Eagles is that vested veteran offensive lineman Nick Gates is a part of the team’s plans for Week 1 against Green Bay yet Philadelphia released the Nebraska product explaining to him that he would be elevated early in the season.

The idea behind that juggling act is that a veteran like Gates doesn’t have to go through waivers and by working out an understanding you can keep a younger player away from a potential claim.

The idea the Eagles have a better idea than anyone else about who may or may not be claimed is partially true from the perspective that the organization has the resources to do as much homework as possible.

However, in the end, it’s always just a better-educated guess.

“It’s challenging,” assistant GM Alec Halaby told Philadelphia Eagles on SI when asked about the waiver wire. “You look around the league, you try to figure out where people have a surplus, where they have deficits, where they might have some needs but that’s something that’s problematic. 

“You don’t have real certainty in any cases there where 'hey we’re going to lose this guy or we’re going to be able to get this guy back.' You learn on the fly there and you have some intuition and some instincts about it, but you can regularly be wrong.”

The Eagles claimed former San Francisco cornerback Sam Womack at the cut to 53 but so did Indianapolis and Kansas City with the Colts being awarded the player due to higher priority on the wire than a playoff team like the Eagles and the Super Bowl champions.

Philadelphia did claim defensive tackle Byron Young from Las Vegas on Thursday after the Alabama product was waived to make room for two claims the Raiders made at the initial 53, one being Indianapolis DT Jonah Laulu.

To make room for Young the Eagles waived fourth-year DT Marlon Tuipulotu, who did clear waivers before subsequently signing with the Chiefs’ practice squad.

The educated guess is that second-year CB Eli Ricks would have been on the outside, looking in had the Eagles been awarded Womack but that’s just the kind of intuition Halaby described.

Considering Carolina had top waiver priority and the Panthers claimed three cornerbacks, it seemed like a sound decision to keep Ricks on the initial 53. That said, an NFL source in Carolina told Eagles on SI Ricks was not on the Panthers’ radar.

“Some people look at it like it’s 24 hours before the deadline when these conversations are happening, but we start talking about that in late July,” Halaby said. “We’re talking about that every day, every week throughout August and then you’re trying to piece that out and sort of plan for all the eventualities and the different permeations it can take.”

MORE NFL: Eagles Name Captains, And It's The First Time Being Chosen For One Veteran