Eagles taking a risk by not addressing defense

There is a side of football that you might have seen signs for at various sporting events – a big letter “D” followed by the prop of a fence.

When the two signs are held together, they become a symbol for the word “defense.” Someone should try telling that to the Eagles.

Throughout this offseason, we have seen the Eagles add two wide receivers, an offensive lineman, and a backup quarterback while re-signing another offensive lineman and keeping left tackle Jason Peters at his full salary of $10.5 million.

On defense, where the Eagles were mediocre last season, they released two starters (cornerback Leodis McKelvin and defensive end Connor Barwin) and let two other starters leave as free agents (cornerback Nolan Carroll and defensive tackle Bennie Logan). They haven’t replaced any of them. There is speculation that another starter, linebacker Mychal Kendricks, will either be traded or released at some point this spring.

And there have been reports that the New Orleans Saints asked for safety Malcolm Jenkins, along with two mid-round draft picks, in trade talks for wide receiver Brandin Cooks. Eagles executive vice president for football operations Howie Roseman turned that deal down, then signed free agent wide receivers Alshon Jeffery and Torrey Smith. Cooks was eventually traded to the New England Patriots.

On Wednesday, Roseman didn't deny that Jenkins, the Eagles' best safety, was mentioned when interviewed by SportsRadio 94 WIP.

"People should be interested in Malcolm Jenkins," Roseman said. "By the same token, we don't want to give him up."

Otherwise, Roseman didn't seem too worried about the defense.

“We’re not going to address everything right now,” Roseman said last week. “And if there’s a particular position that we don’t address right now, that doesn’t preclude us [from] doing something before the season starts – and certainly not in the draft.

“We’ve got a long period of time before we play a game before we report to training camp. We’re going to look at every option to try to improve this team.”

Does this signal Roseman’s vision for what the NFL is turning into, where the offense is by far the top priority? Roseman, after all, has spent most of the offseason insisting that he needs to surround quarterback Carson Wentz with better players on offense. So he added Jeffery and Smith on the first day of free agency. Both have had 1,000-yard receiving seasons in the past, and both give the Eagles components in speed and catching balls in traffic that they have sorely missed the last two seasons.

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The Eagles definitely needed help at receiver. But they also need help at cornerback. The Eagles have no returning starters there now that McKelvin and Carroll are gone. While neither should be confused with Richard Sherman or Josh Norman or Darrelle Revis in his prime, the Eagles only have Jalen Mills as a likely returnee with playing experience from last season.

Of course, the draft is considered loaded at cornerback and the Eagles must believe they can get one, and possibly two, starters at that position.

But they might have already suffered a setback in that regard when Washington’s Sidney Jones, whom some draft analysts predicted would be the Eagles’ choice at No. 14, tore his Achilles during his Pro Day last weekend.

That opens up a new set of circumstances, such as, is there another cornerback worthy of the No. 14 pick, assuming that Ohio State’s Marshon Lattimore will be taken by then? If not, will the Eagles draft a defensive end or running back, and thus try to get a cornerback in the second or third round? Or perhaps trade back in the first round to get an extra pick in a later round?

If the Eagles are starting a rookie cornerback along with Mills, that would seem to go against Roseman’s philosophy during the early part of free agency of signing veteran players who are not only good but can serve as an example for younger players. The Eagles did this at wide receiver for Nelson Agholor and Dorial Green-Beckham, who so far have been disappointments during the early part of their careers.

“You have guys … to watch Alshon and see his skill set and the traits that he has,” Roseman said. “And for Nelson [Agholor] to get a chance to see Torrey and see how he is every day. That was one of the big things … having guys in the room who have done it before to help the younger players.”

And yet, at cornerback, when it was mentioned that the Eagles could have two first-time starters, Roseman brought up the 2004 Super Bowl season when the Eagles had Sheldon Brown and Lito Sheppard as full-time starters for the first time.

Roseman might have overlooked the fact that Sheppard and Brown were each in their third seasons, and they had spent their first two learning from veterans Troy Vincent and Bobby Taylor.

Sure, the Eagles could still sign a free agent. But the best ones have already been snatched up, leaving the Eagles to choose among the “Band-Aids” that Roseman has said he wants to avoid.

There is plenty of time to sort all of this out before the draft. As Roseman said, “you don’t want to go into a draft having to have something.”

As of now, it sure seems like the Eagles have to have cornerbacks.

Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.