Trade Montae Reagor?

We have an early leader for the winner of this year's Ed Jasper award.  Jasper, you may recall, was the veteran defensive tackle the Eagles brought in last year to provide some depth, who then surprised everyone by suggesting he probably wasn't good enough to make the team.  He didn't.

The new, old guy who looks like he might be in trouble this year is also a defensive tackle -- Montae Reagor.  It's not a totally parallel situation.  Reagor is coming off a lost year due to nasty injuries sustained in a car accident, but he's three years younger than Jasper was last year, was playing at a decently high level when he got injured, and would provide some quality depth if he can just fight through an array of nagging injuries and get on the field.

The problem is the Eagles have a lot of big, strong kids at the DT position these days.  It may not make sense to keep a one-year guy around at the expense of losing a talented youngster.

When Reagor was brought in, it was clear that at least one of his jobs was acting as a mentor to some of the younger guys, most importantly Brodrick Bunkley.  But it's a little hard to be a role model when you're standing around in sweats the whole time. 

Injuries could also change the picture completely.  If something happens to one of the starters at that position, suddenly the depth doesn't look quite as good and Reagor isn't going anywhere.  It's also going to be hard to trade him until he at least shows he's healthy enough to get on the field.

But that's the beauty of this particular situation.  The team that makes the most sense as a trade partner is Reagor's old squad, the Indianapolis Colts.  They just cut former Eagle Corey Simon and watched their other starter, Booger McFarland, go down for the year with a serious knee injury.  They have to be looking hard for bodies anywhere they can find them.

Reagor makes perfect sense.  Because he already knows their scheme and the coaches, nothing needs to happen right away.  The teams can see how things play out the next couple of weeks before deciding to make a move.  And the Eagles might be able to get a bit more value out of him because the Colts are so desperate. 

There's one more thing to consider here.  Last year, when the Eagles signed Darren Howard as a free agent, they made a big deal about his ability to move inside on passing downs to provide an up-the-middle pass rush.  Howard actually did a nice job in that role, but then he started to wear down a bit with injuries and too many snaps, so they stopped using him as much.

This season, when he's likely to start out as the backup to Trent Cole, and the Eagles have even more depth at defensive end with JT Thomas and rookie Victor Abiamiri, there's no reason not to use Howard inside sometimes if they're looking to juice the pass rush.  If they do, we may not need a pass-rushing nickel defensive tackle this year as much as we thought. 

Comments

[BleedingGreenNation]

The problem with Reagor is that they gave him a $2 million signing bonus. Do you really think they'd eat that and put it all on this year's cap before he's even taken a snap? This isn't like Jasper where they could cut him and lose nothing. Reagor got good upfront money.

I think the Eagles have put themselves in a situation where they have no choice but to keep him.

[Me]

That is a very good point. Although all we know is that $2 million of the contract is "guaranteed." I haven't seen anything anywhere that explains the structure of the deal, which means it could include future roster bonuses, etc.

Certainly adds a complication though.

[meanguy]

that's a very interesting notion and i don't think the signing bonus precludes the move. according to bj's eagles cap page, reagor signed a 3 year deal with a 2 million dollar signing bonus. his base salary this season is 720k, making his cap number this season 1.387 million.

my understanding is if they cut him before the start of the regular season, they're not liable for his base salary and would only be responsible for the accelerated signing bonus (the full 2 mil). this means that cutting him would only be an incremental salary cap hit of 613k.

if they find that one of the rookies is the better player, i'm sure they'd have no problem absorbing the additional 800k (613k + rookie minimum) to cut/trade reagor and keep, say, jeremy clark.