Philadelphia Eagles Got Too Cute with LB Christian Elliss Before Landing with New England Patriots

The Philadelphia Eagles wanted to get special-teams stalwart Christian Elliss through waivers and onto the practice squad. He was claimed by six different teams and awarded to the New England Patriots.

PHILADELPHIA - The Philadelphia Eagles needed to get better at off-ball linebacker and saw a late-season opportunity to do so when Shaq Leonard shook loose from the Indianapolis Colts.

A former three-time All-Pro Leonard isn't the player he once was when he and Nick Sirianni got to know each other with the Colts but he seemed like a clear upgrade for an organization in all-in mode.

The other suitor for Leonard happened to be the Dallas Cowboys, the Eagles' chief rival in the NFC East and one of two viable threats to knock Philadelphia from its No. 1 perch atop the NFC.

If the Eagles were going to add Leonard it was going to have to be on the 53-man roster with no practice squad ramp-up afforded like with other in-season veteran additions Julio Jones and Bradley Roby. And that meant someone had to go to make room for Leonard, who is expected to play Sunday night at Dallas in a somewhat limited role.

In a rare miscalculation, GM Howie Roseman decided to waive fellow LB and core special-team Christian Elliss with the hope of getting the second-year pro back on the team's practice squad.

Roseman used every trick in the book to hide something that was in plain sight. If you rewind to Monday the Leonard deal was announced as "agreed to terms." The idea was to push off the actual signing of the contract to deeper in the week when everyone around the league was in prep mode for Week 14 and less likely to want to add talent.

The sleight of hand didn't remotely work and Elliss, 24, was claimed by six different teams with New England being awarded the ascending player.

Christian Elliss was very popular on the waiver wire :: Ed Kracz/SI Eagles Today

The others who tried to secure Elliss were Jonathan Gannon's Arizona Cardinals, the Tennessee Titans, Atlanta Falcons, Denver Broncos, and Miami Dolphins.

“We knew he had some good special teams tape out there, I thought he had a good game the other day as well. We were hoping [he got through waivers],” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni admitted before practice on Friday morning. “But you know what, happy for Christian to land on his feet. But, obviously, we were hoping to get him back. 

"He’s in a good place. And I wish him the best of luck.”

Roseman is typically as savvy as they come and his reaction to something like this would be along the lines of only in Philadelphia is a back-end of the roster move any kind of story.

And that's probably fair but for an organization that prides itself in winning outside the margins, exposing Elliss instead of other players like tight end Albert Okwuegbunam, undrafted rookie linebacker Ben VanSumeren or veteran running back Rashaad Penny was a clear miscalculation.

With Dallas Goedert set to return from a fractured forearm against the Cowboys it's likely Okwuegbunam will go back to joining Penny, who has been nothing more than a break-glass-in-case-of emergency option in the backfield, on the game-day inactive list. 

BVS, meanwhile, got the nod over Elliss because he's out of PS elevations while Elliss would have three remaining had he gotten through waivers so Roseman was pushing for as much roster flexibility as possible.

It's also possible that any of the other players mentioned may have been claimed as well because of Philadelphia's standing and reputation around the league but they have all been in far lesser roles than Elliss, who leads the rejuvenated Eagles' special teams units with 238 snaps.

Losing Elliss isn't sinking the team's playoff hopes or long-term goals but it's worth noting that Roseman probably pushed things a little far this time and lost a player he didn't want to lose because of it.

That and a Michael Clay expletive or two are the tax for getting too cute.

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