Eagles Need to Do Something at Safety, but With Who and When?

Here is a closer look at the position with Rodney McLeod and Anthony Harris set to become free agents

Free agency will dictate what the Eagles do at safety when it comes time for the 2022 NFL Draft.

Whatever they do, action is required and it could begin prior to the start of the new league year on March 16 or in the days after.

Rodney McLeod and Anthony Harris are free agents.

That’s a combined 233 NFL games worth of experience right there.

That leaves Marcus Epps and K’Von Wallace currently sitting atop the depth chart.

That’s a combined 73 NFL games of experience right there.

The Eagles could opt to bring back one of either McLeod or Harris or start anew and look for younger upgrades in free agency.

Loading up on New Orleans Saints free agent Marcus Williams would be a good start to action. The 24-year-old with 76 NFL games played should be the plum on the market at that position if he is not re-signed by New Orleans.

Marcus Williams (43) / USA Today

NFL teams judge safety play differently these days. Some value them more than others.

“To me, there's a real debate going on around the league about just how high you take safeties,” said NFL Network’s lead draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah during a nearly two-hour-long Zoom call on Friday. “I'm a little more biased in favor of them. You know, calling the Chargers games for the last four years and seeing every game that Derwin James has played there and the impact that position can make and think back to my time with the Baltimore Ravens and seeing what Ed Reed could do. 

"So, I don't necessarily agree with the conventional wisdom on that, of how high you take a safety.”

The Eagles don’t throw a lot of resources at linebackers, so the presumption is they probably believe that safety play is more vital.

Until that is, you look at their draft record.

Their first-round history is filled with offensive and defensive linemen, quarterbacks, and receivers. No safeties, though.

Even the great Brian Dawkins was a second-round pick in 1996.

The Eagles have taken two safeties in the last two drafts – JaCoby Stevens last year and Wallace in 2020. Both were picked on the third day of the draft and Stevens was a combination linebacker/safety.

They took defensive backs on the second day of the draft that you thought would be good safeties – Rasul Douglas (2017) and Eric Rowe (2015) - but the Eagles never transitioned them from cornerback.

They took safety Jaiquawn Jarrett in the second round in 2011, but he never panned out, making nine starts before washing out of the league after five seasons.

It’s always been the free agency route the Eagles have traveled to find safeties. Both McLeod and Harris came via free agency as did Malcolm Jenkins.

That brings us to this spring’s draft.

Notre Dame’s Kyle Hamilton is one of the best players in the draft. He’s a do-it-all safety ready to step in.

He won’t be there when the Eagles are scheduled to pick No. 15.

Would they perhaps try to trade into the top 10 if Hamilton sags a bit?

Unlikely.

But that’s OK.

“You can find tons of safeties,” said Jeremiah. “You can find starters there on day two and day three. When you look at rounds 2 and 3, the average there's five and a half safeties on average over the last 10 years that go in that range. It's a good spot to find those guys.”

Some second-round hits in recent years were Jevon Holland last year and Antoine Winfield two years ago.

That could be the sweet spot again this year for the Eagles, with the likes of Michigan’s Daxton Hill, Penn State’s Jaquan Brisker, Georgia’s Lewis Cline, Baylor Jalen Pitre, and Illinois’ Kerby Joseph likely to be there in the second round, where the Eagles have the 51st overall pick in the daft, or the third round, where they own the 83rd overall selection.

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation EaglesToday and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglestoday.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.