Saturday, February 28, 2015

Eagles set to go after Byron Maxwell in Free Agency

The Seattle Seahawks two straight trips to the Super Bowl were built around a defense that featured one of the best secondaries in the league. It appears that the Eagles may be looking to rebuild their porous defensive backfield with one of the cornerstones of that Seattle defense by signing Byron Maxwell, who is due to become an unrestricted free agent on March 10.

This move would make all the sense in the world for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the need is there after the Eagles gave-up a NFL-high 72 pass plays of 20 yards of more this past season. Maxwell caught head coach Chip Kelly's eye in Philadelphia's 24-14 loss to the Seahawks this past season after he played a key role in keeping his high-powered offense from converting on nine of 11 third-down opportunities in that game.

The second reason on the list would be Maxwell's prototypical size and cover ability that would fit perfectly into defensive coordinator Billy Davis's current scheme. The Eagles do not have a premier cover corner and Maxwell would fit the bill. He would also bring a much needed physical presence at the line of scrimmage that has been extremely lacking in this defensive backfield in recent years.

Another reason why going after Maxwell would make a ton of sense is it would free up Kelly to pursue other team needs with the 20th pick in the opening round of this year's NFL Draft. The offensive line needs to be addressed as well as the safety position on defense. More and more experts are expecting Philly to make some kind of move to go after former Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota. If that is the case, Kelly is going to need to fill certain holes through free agency in light of the fact that he will probably have to mortgage this year's draft (and possibly the next few) to move up high enough to land his former signal caller when he was still coaching the Ducks.

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