Eagles host QB Joe Flacco, but corner Adoree’ Jackson signs with Giants before visiting here

Friday’s Eagles signing of safety Anthony Harris was a bit like seeing crocuses poke their heads through the dirt, or hearing robins sing — it meant free agency, like spring, was officially here, arriving later than in some cities, because of the Eagles’ lack of salary-cap room.

The team that could only entice journeyman special-teams player and safety Andrew Adams to come aboard while the early wave of expensive, top-drawer players signed is getting into the swing of things. With Harris, a presumed starter, in hand, Eagles general manager Howie Roseman welcomed veteran quarterback Joe Flacco to the NovaCare Complex on Monday. Corner Adoree’ Jackson was to visit Monday evening, but Jackson signed with the Giants for three years and $39 million, ESPN reported, just before he was scheduled to head down the turnpike.

Flacco, 36, the pride of the Audubon Green Wave in South Jersey and the Delaware Blue Hens, already lives in Haddonfield, and much more important to the Eagles, presumably comes with a cheap price tag along with his 13 years of NFL experience. Flacco got good reviews as a mentor and backup to Sam Darnold last year for the Jets, playing for $1.5 million, with only $550,000 guaranteed, coming off neck surgery for a disk problem.

Flacco is a long way from his Super Bowl XLVII MVP season, and from the ensuing debate over whether he was truly “elite.” But he threw three touchdown passes in a loss to the Patriots last year, and the seemingly better stylistic fits to back up Jalen Hurts — such as Jacoby Brissett and Tyrod Taylor — are long gone from the market, at prices the Eagles could not afford. Other than signing Flacco or trading for Nick Foles, it’s hard to see what an Eagles backup plan would look like right now.

Signing Flacco probably would not affect the Eagles’ decision on whether to draft a quarterback sixth overall on April 29. Roseman mentioned in his news conference last week that new coach Nick Sirianni “reminds me daily, we only have one quarterback on our roster. It’s definitely not going to stay that way.”

Flacco lost his starting job to Lamar Jackson in 2018, when he first suffered the neck injury. There were reports that he hadn’t been very close or helpful to Jackson, then a rookie. Flacco went to Denver in 2019 and made it clear he was there to start, not to be a resource for rookie QB Drew Lock.

“I don’t look at that as my job,” Flacco said when Broncos OTAs began. “My job is to go win football games for this football team.” The quote caused a stir.

But last year after signing with the Jets, Flacco said he was “fully embracing” his role as backup and adviser to Darnold and glad to have a job in the league.

Jackson’s signing would have been a huge deal, bigger than Flacco, but the Giants came up with far more than the Eagles had to spend, regardless of how they amortize the deal.

The Eagles are always trying to get better at corner — it’s a decade-long quest, since the days of Asante Samuel and Sheldon Brown. Jackson is 25, and in Monday’s Pro Football Focus ranking of remaining available free agents, he came in third. PFF ranks Jackson fourth in the NFL in coverage, when lined up outside, since 2018.

» READ MORE: Eagles GM Howie Roseman may be late to the NFL free agency party, but that may change soon

One New York attraction was the presence of his friend and fellow former Titans corner Logan Ryan. Eagles corner Darius Slay and safety Rodney McLeod also know Jackson, and posted social-media entreaties for him to join the Eagles, to no avail.

The Eagles’ secondary will look quite different in 2021, after the team let Jalen Mills (New England), Rudy Ford (Jacksonville), Cre’Von LeBlanc and Nickell Robey-Coleman (both so far unsigned) head into free agency. Harris and Jackson, along with Slay, would have been a great start toward making that grouping an actual strength, which it never was during the tenure of pass-rush-happy defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz.

The Eagles can draft a cornerback with one (or more) of the four picks they hold in the first three rounds of the draft, but relying on rookie corners, even talented ones, is tricky. What’s left in free agency? Well, there’s another ex-Titan, Malcolm Butler, better known as a Patriots Super Bowl hero. Remember all the hubbub when he was benched for Super Bowl LII? He’s 31 now. There’s Quinton Dunbar, familiar to Eagles fans as a former adversary with the Washington Football Team. Dunbar is still just 28 but is coming off a knee injury suffered last season with Seattle. After that, it’s pretty sparse.