Versatile CB Helps The Eagles in Multiple Ways

If healthy Avonte Maddox can contribute at slot cornerback and safety as well as helping GM Howie Roseman with a roster crunch.

Eagles CB Avonte Maddox / Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

PHILADELPHIA - it’s hard to count on Avonte Maddox after the veteran slot cornerback missed more regular-season games (21) than he played over the past two seasons (13).

That’s why the Eagles released Maddox from the final year of the three-year, $22.5 million contract extension he signed in November 2021 instead of paying the Pittsburgh product the $6.85 million he was originally set to make in 2024.

Given his freedom, Maddox took his time and visited the New Orleans Saints before agreeing to come back to the only professional team he’s known on a one-year, prove-it deal for $2M with $875,000 of that guaranteed.

While Maddox’s absence for most of last season proved to the Eagles they couldn’t afford to move forward with the status quo with fingers crossed, it also highlighted just how important the slot CB position is in the modern NFL.

Of all the defensive problems the Eagles had in freefall from having the top-ranked pass defense in 2022, to No. 31 last season, none were as glaring as the slot where it became a revolving door without Maddox to hold it down.

This time around, the contingencies are better and could include rookie Cooper DeJean, who got second-team nickel reps in his first public OTA practice, free-agent signee Tyler Hall, and potentially Isaiah Rodgers, who has started as an outside CB in the spring.

As for Maddox, he was with the first-team defense at the open OTA practice last week and also cross-trained at safety where he was forced to play in the wild-card loss to Tampa Bay in January due to late-season injuries to Reed Blankenship and Sydney Brown.    

More so, that versatility to play on the back end by Maddox could help GM Howie Roseman in the number crunching to 53, allowing the Eagles to keep an extra young body where they are deep at outside CB.

That's a lot of value for $2M and why, with a little injury luck, rebooting things with Maddox may have been one of the Eagles' savviest offseason moves.

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