Keeping Eagles' defense intact will require thinking cap

WHILE THE 204 rushing yards they gave up to the Carolina Panthers Sunday night might indicate otherwise, the truth is the Eagles have quietly built a pretty good defense.

They are first in the league in takeaways, ninth in points allowed, sixth in opponent passer rating, and until Jonathan Stewart and Cam Newton and Ted Ginn came along, they had the league's third-best defensive rushing average (3.5 yards allowed per carry) and hadn't allowed an individual 100-yard rusher in 18 games.

But in today's NFL, building a good offense and/or defense is only half the battle. Almost as challenging, thanks to free agency and the salary cap, is keeping it together.

Four key players from Bill Davis' defense - cornerback Nolan Carroll, safety Walter Thurmond, defensive end Cedric Thornton and pass-rush specialist Vinny Curry - can become unrestricted free agents after the season.

Five more - defensive end Fletcher Cox, nose tackle Bennie Logan, inside linebackers Kiko Alonso and DeMeco Ryans and safety Chris Maragos - will be free agents after next season. But given how fast Cox and Logan's value is soaring, the Eagles really need to get new deals done with those two sooner rather than later.

The Eagles picked up Cox's option for 2016, which means that unless he signs a new contract, his salary-cap number will jump from $3.3 million this year to $7.8 million next year.

As things stand now, he will be one of seven defensive players with a cap number of at least $4 million next year. The others are cornerback Byron Maxwell ($9.7M), linebacker Connor Barwin ($7.3M), safety Malcolm Jenkins ($7.2M), linebacker Brandon Graham ($5M) and linebackers Mychal Kendricks ($4.6M) and Ryans ($4.5M).

"Clearly, the amount of money that they need to spend if they want to keep the guys up front in place will have an impact on how much they can spend on the guys on the back end,'' said former Eagles president Joe Banner, who now has a studio gig with ESPN.

"They can't have all big-money guys. They can't have Kendricks and DeMeco Ryans and then three high-priced guys up front and two expensive corners and a safety. They'd have to play with all rookies on offense if they did that. So they're going to have to make some choices.''

Cox is looking at a huge payday when he signs his next contract. He was a second-team All-Pro selection last year and has quickly established himself as one of the league's very best defensive linemen. And in case you hadn't noticed, the very best defensive linemen are getting lots and lots of money.

Ndamukong Suh signed a six-year, $114.4M free-agent deal with the Dolphins in March that includes $60 million in guarantees. Gerald McCoy signed a seven-year, $95.2M deal with Tampa Bay. And two months ago, the Bills gave Marcell Dareus a six-year, $95.1M extension, $60M of which is guaranteed.

"Any time you have a high-quality player playing an important position, the sooner you can get them signed the better off you are,'' Banner said. "Because the price is only going to go up because the market is going to go up.

"And the player and the agent get more leverage the closer you get to the end of the deal. That was always the reason we tried to sign players early. As you watch the top-tier guys at (Cox's) position - the McCoys and the Suhs and Darius - as you see (the size of) those deals, the market frankly is exploding.''

Given the investment the Eagles are going to have to make in both Cox and Logan, it's really going to be tough for them to justify re-signing Thornton.

Thornton is a solid three-year starter who is going to be coveted by a lot of other 3-4 teams. The Eagles already have some cheaper in-house replacement options in Brandon Bair and Taylor Hart.

It's going to be interesting to see what happens on the back end with Thurmond and Carroll. They've been key components in Davis' improved secondary.

Both were fairly inexpensive acquisitions. Carroll, who had started 22 games with Miami, signed a two-year, $5.2 million deal with the Eagles in 2014 and spent last season as a backup before winning the starting job this year.

The oft-injured Thurmond signed a one-year, $3.25 million deal and has flourished after being moved from corner to safety.

Both will cost a lot more to keep around after this season. But, as Banner correctly pointed out, even with the salary cap expected to take another $10 million jump next year, you can't give big bucks to everyone.

Their other starting corner and safety - Maxwell and Jenkins - will count a combined $16.9 million against the Eagles' cap next season.

If I had to guess, I'd say the Eagles will try to re-sign one of them and then hope that rookie second-rounder Eric Rowe, who has played just 14 defensive snaps in the last three games, makes significant improvement in his second year.

"They've got some tough decisions to make,'' Banner said. "What's going on up front (with Cox, Logan and Thornton) makes the secondary question a lot more complicated, especially when you've got one guy (Maxwell) you've got a lot of money (invested) in.

"You don't want to have to rebuild the same thing twice. You don't want to have the solve the same problem twice. If you believe you have a satisfactory solution, then you certainly don't want to let them get to the market and run the risk of having to (rebuild your secondary) again.

"Now, whether Carroll is good enough to win a championship, whether Thurmond is good enough or can stay healthy enough, that is an assessment they have to make. But generally, if you feel you have somebody who's good enough to get you where you want to go, you really should be re-signing them and not risking that you can find a second solution to the problem.

"The other thing is, they may have some of these younger guys that they feel just need a year. If they think that by the time Rowe gets into his second year, he could be a good player, then they're not going to sign at least one of those guys. They're going to hold that spot for him. We don't know what they think about that.''

A look at the contract status and 2015-16 cap numbers for some of the Eagles' top defensive players:

Final

Contract 2015 2016

Year Cap No. Cap No.

Thornton. . . 2015 $2.4M -

Carroll. . . 2015 $2.9M -

Thurmond. . . 2015 $3.2M -

Curry. . . 2015 $3.2M -

Cox. . . 2016 $3.3M $7.8M

Logan. . . 2016 $818,523 $926,523

Ryans. . . 2016 $3.0M $4.5M

Alonso. . . 2016 $795,946 $991,418

Maragos. . . 2016 $1.4M $1.7M

Bair. . . 2016 $635,000 $775,000

Jenkins. . . 2017 $5.7M $7.2M

Smith. . . 2017 $1.8M $2.1M

Hart. . . 2017 $563,878 $653,878

Barwin. . . 2018 $7.0M $7.3M

Graham. . . 2018 $6.0M $5.0M

Hicks. . . 2018 $598,183 $706,183

Kendricks. . . 2019 $3.0M $4.6M

Maxwell. . . 2020 $8.7M $9.7M

** "When I look at Greg and how he's handled himself on the field and in the locker room, I see a guy that is not aware. He doesn't understand the magnitude of what happened last year, what he did. I don't think he gets it. I don't think that he learned his lesson. He really needs to look at himself in the mirror and ask himself, 'What type of person do I want to be?' " - Jets wide receiver Brandon Marshall on Cowboys defensive end Greg Hardy

** "There's a lot of hard work that went into winning the game. It had nothing to do with luck. It had to do with us being in the right spot at the right time. That's not luck. There's a lot of hard work in that.'' - Giants coach Tom Coughlin responding to a suggestion that his team's win over the Cowboys was lucky

** "We're in a dark place. We're miserable around here.'' - Bucs coach Lovie Smith after his team's 31-30 loss to Washington

* The Eagles blitzed on a season-high 60 percent of Carolina's pass plays Sunday night (15 of 25 plays). All three of their interceptions, as well as their lone sack of Cam Newton, came on blitzes. A seven-game breakdown of the Eagles' pass rush:

Cmp. Yds.

Rushers Plays Pct. /Att. TD/I Sk. Rat.

Three. . . 16 68.7 7.6 1/0 0 112.0

Four. . . 196 68.4 7.1 6/6 9 86.0

Five. . . 68 54.8 5.6 0/5 6 37.6

Six. . . 10 40.0 6.8 2/0 0 103.3

Seven. . . 2 50.0 2.0 1/0 0 95.8

* The Panthers averaged 9.7 yards per carry on second down against the Eagles. In their first six games, the Eagles had held opponents to 3.5 yards per carry on second down.

* Newton completed just two of six passes for 9 yards on third down against the Eagles. But he was 12-for-18 for 188 yards on first and second down.

* Ryan Mathews is averaging 6.1 yards per carry, which is the highest rushing average in the league among players with at least 30 carries. He has rushed for 35 more yards (342) than DeMarco Murray (307) on 32 fewer carries (56). A breakdown of some of Mathews' and Murray's rushing numbers, including their rushing averages by down and quarter:

Murray Mathews

First Down Avg.. . . 2.8 7.2

Second Down Avg.. . . 3.5 6.1

Third Down Avg.. . . 8.5 0.2

First Quarter Avg.. . . 3.7 6.8

Second Quarter Avg.. . . 3.0 5.6

Third Quarter Avg.. . . 2.6 7.8

Fourth Quarter Avg.. . . 4.7 4.7

Rushing First Downs. . . 18 18

Rushes of 10+ Yards. . . 8 8

Negative Runs. . . 11 4

* The Eagles have averaged just 4.4 yards per play on their first two possessions this season. They've scored just 10 points on those 14 possessions. Their opponents have averaged 6.3 yards per play on their first two possessions and have scored 24 points.

* Sam Bradford has a 55.8 red-zone passer rating. That's the lowest in the league. A look at the five best and five worst red-zone passer ratings through the first seven weeks:

BEST

Comp.

Pct. TD Int. Sk. Rate

Matthew Stafford. . . 60.6 11 0 0 115.3

Ryan Fitzpatrick. . . 60.0 10 0 0 112.2

Tom Brady. . . 61.4 13 0 3 110.9

Marcus Mariota. . . 55.6 8 0 1 107.4

Josh McCown. . . 60.7 5 0 4 106.4

WORST

Comp.

Pct. TD Int. Sk. Rate

Sam Bradford. . . 46.7 4 3 2 55.8

Russell Wilson. . . 46.2 3 2 3 60.1

Teddy Bridgewater. . . 33.3 4 1 4 64.6

Peyton Manning. . . 53.8 5 2 0 68.4

Joe Flacco. . . 48.7 6 2 1 74.8

* Eagles receivers already have dropped 28 of Sam Bradford's 274 passes. That's one every 9.8 attempts, which is the highest drop rate of Bradford's career. Prior to this season, Bradford's receivers had averaged a drop every 14.9 attempts. A season-by-season look at Bradford's drop rate:

YearAtt. Drops Rate

2015. . . 274 28 1/9.8

2013. . . 262 21 1/12.5

2012. . . 551 30 1/18.4

2011. . . 357 31 1/11.5

2010. . . 590 36 1/16.4

* Eagles' defense is second in average points allowed off giveaways. They've given up just 21 points on 15 turnovers, an average of 1.40 per turnover. The Packers are first (.75) They've allowed just three points off of four giveaways. The Eagles' offense has scored a league-high 53 points off of 18 takeaways. That doesn't include Nolan Carroll's interception return for a touchdown against the Giants. Their 2.9 points-per-takeaway average is only the 12th best in the league.

* NFL games have averaged 46.6 points per game this season. That would be the second-highest game average in the Super Bowl era if it holds. Teams averaged 46.8 points per game in 2013.

*Five teams started at 6-0. That's the most ever. There were four in 2009.

* This is just the third time the Bengals have been 6-0 and the first time since 1988.

* Rob Gronkowski recorded his 60th touchdown catch in his 71st NFL game. That's the fastest a tight end ever has caught 60 TD passes, and the third fastest by a player at any position. Wide receiver Lance Alworth got to 60 in 64 games. Jerry Rice did it in 69.

* Brandon Boykin hasn't been playing much for the Steelers this season, and that's bad news for the Eagles. The Eagles traded Boykin for a conditional fifth-round pick that could become a fourth-rounder if the cornerback played a sizable number of defensive snaps. But Boykin has played just 23 snaps in the Steelers' first seven games. That number possibly could increase Sunday against Cincinnati. William Gay, one of the Steelers' two starting corners, is nursing a shoulder injury and could miss the first game of his nine-year career. If Gay doesn't play, Boykin or nickel corner Ross Cockrell will take his place, with the other playing in the slot.

* Walter Thurmond and Malcolm Jenkins are rated as the NFL's top-performing safety tandem this season by Pro Football Focus. PFF rated the Eagles' secondary third overall, behind only Arizona and Denver.

* How much NFL-caliber talent does Ohio State have? So much that some scouts have needed three days in Columbus to evaluate all of their prospects. Usually, it takes a day, maybe a day and change.

* Scouts who have been to North Philly to check out Temple have been impressed by the number of draftable prospects there. The best: defensive lineman Matt Ioannidis. "He's got a high motor,'' an AFC scout said. "He's a big, strong kid who's really good at the point (of attack). He's slippery as a pass rusher. He's not a first-rounder, but he's a guy who's going to be playing on Sundays.''

Blog: eagletarian.com

Email: pdomo@aol.com