The St. Louis Rams decided not to re-issue a tender to safety Oshiomogho Atogwe, making him a free agent. From the Rams perspective, the price at over $7MM was too much for the last place team. It’s also possible that Atogwe could re-sign with the Rams at a lower amount if he cannot find a suitable taker.
But as of now, Atogwe is a free agent, and the Eagles, who just lost Marlin Jackson to an injury, should certainly be interested. However, according to reports, the Eagles are not pursuing Atogwe.
Atogwe is only 28 years old, and in the prime of his career. He has been a playmaker for a number of bad Rams teams throughout his career. In just five seasons, Atogwe has 19 interceptions and 14 forced fumbles. So Atogwe is young, and talented, and plays a position that the Eagles are in need of upgrading.
After going through a painful season watching Quintin Demps, Macho Harris, and Sean Jones try to fill Brian Dawkins’ shoes, it doesn‚Äôt make sense that the Eagles have no interest at all.
The Eagles have high hopes for 2nd round pick Nate Allen, but Atogwe is a proven player in his prime, and could instantly help this defense.
Scouting reports on Allen indicate that he could also play cornerback. Is it a far- fetched idea to bring Atogwe in to play free safety, and move Allen to corner to compete with Ellis Hobbs and Joselio Hanson for the starting job opposite Asante Samuel?
Even if the Eagles don’t have interest in moving Allen to corner, will he be ready to pick up the Eagles complicated defensive scheme and be effective in his first season? Some rookies can contribute right away, but most have a learning curve to go through. And the safety position is not the easiest to master.
After all of the salary the Eagles dumped by releasing multiple veterans, they certainly have the money to pursue a player like Atogwe.
It is a very unusual circumstance that a talented player as young as Atogwe becomes available at this time of the season. The Eagles should be interested in adding a playmaker to a defense that has some serious holes, and are missing a golden opportunity to fill one of them with a playmaker.
If he’s not recently injured (and at a discount), I doubt we’d have any interest.
That almost makes too much sense for them G. We will see. If they do it, I’d be surprised. If you want your defense to be better, you pick him up. If you want to put another guy out there training on the job and the backups aren’t good either then you don’t sign him and let one of your competitors like the Cowboys pick him up. Yeah they need a safety as well.
Yeah Drummer, he has to have had a season ending injury within the past 2 years in order for us to pursue him. That way we don’t have to pay a lot for him. Another team will outbid us for him if we were interested.
Shoulder surgery and missed 4 games last season, also had a Sports Hernia Operation this off-season… He’s was due for a 1 year tender over $6 million in Salary if the Rams were to re-sign him… which makes no sense for them… He has been banged up and is expecting top-Pro-Bowl type of $$ and long-term contract which is not going to happen in the NFL this year for him.. To offer a 1 year deal
at $2.5 million with incentives and then if he playes well look to lock him in for a longer-term deal..
Maybe some teams will do this (probably the Cowboys,Vikings & redskins who also need Safety Help).. but not the Philadelphia Eagles..
For the short-term I would rather the Eagles bring in Safety Ken Hamlin who was released by the Cowboys this off-season for 2 reasons, he’s very physical and can play in the box versus some of the running teams the Eagles face this year, and he knows the NFC East Competition very well playing against the Giants,Redskins and practicing versus the Cowby Offense over the last few seasons,,
He’s a guy you can get for $1.5 million on a 1 year deal and help out with N Allens maturation process and a proven player who doesn’t have the coverage skills anymore but can still lay the lumber and help out with the young players.. (plus he has a big chip on his shoulder getting released by the Cowboys and wouldn’t be a bad thing having him on the Eagles Sidelines when the face each other twice this year..)
I agree somewhat Paulman about Hamlin. But he’s still a liability in coverage. Only being able to play well in the box is not good when it’s time to play the good teams. Having him back there won’t make me feel anymore confident about our ability to stop big plays especially with the QBs in our division, let alone the ones outside that we will have to play. I.e. Schaub, Favre (possibly), Rodgers, and Manning. We need a guy back there who can cover and tackle. I’d rather let Allen play than sign Hamlin, I think. But since you listed all the injuries of Atogwe, he may be right up our FO’s alley.
wow scorp and Drummer – Pman made your sarcastic comments look silly. Off season sports hernia – for a position that needs to open up the hips and groin and sprint…… but, come to think of it the way some of you guys think the Eagles operate – they should be rushing out to sign him, damaged goods and all.
But seriously for one second – doesn’t every team have a staff of personnel folks that have an evaluation on every other player in the NFL – on every other teams practice squad. And these guys must know the history (injury and otherwise) of these players? Could it be the Eagles haven’t given up on Demps just yet? Most fans gave up on Winston Justice long ago. Could it be that this guy wants a long term deal and the Eagles are not intersted because they want Allen to be there long term solution? I don’t know enough about Atogwe, but the coming off shoulder surgery and sports hernia, I could see offering a very incentive laden deal like they did with Marlin Jackson
No on Hamlin – I think you would do just as well to have Sims play ahybrid LB/S and put Jordan in at WLB.
Paul, first off Hamlin is a bum, and if he was any good he would still be with the cowboys. This is a perfect scenario to show eveyone how the eagles front office operates. They let go dawk because of his salary demands, claiming he was over the hill, yet he played better than any of our safetys last year. Then they turn around and sign sean jones because he was cheap and end up cutting the bum after the bum (quinton Demps) they claimed was drafted to take Dawks spot didn’t work…(By the way, where is considine the other safety that was Dawks heir apparent?) Then they even gave Macho (drafted as a slow corner) a shot. It didn’t work at all., Now, they have another draft pick we are supposed to believe in after the eagles impeccable record of picking safeties..(Dawk was drafted during the Rhodes era.) We wanted Sharper, but everyone including schill and paul claimed his age didn’t warrant a big free agent contract….That brings us to Atogwe. Is he a high pedigree proven safety? check.. Do he know variations of our system? check.. Is he better than every safety on the Eagles roster? Check ..Is he under 30 and in the prime of his career? Check ….But, because he deserves to be paid like a top player at his position the Eagles will not go after him…That’s a big fat check!
Let’s see here. Rams, Vikings, Cowboys, Dophilns, Niners, and Eagles – what do they all have in common – teams who officially said they have no interest in Atogwe. So while Song, and some others think it’s something else, a bunch of NFL teams, in addition to the Eagles, think it’s a bad idea to sign the player. Paulman points out injuries. Check profootballtalk.com and search his last name if you want to see what I’m talking about. Here’s the formula – negadelphian/Eagles FO hater + a free agent plus a name + a valid reason (such as injury or documented poor play) not to sign him = they call the Eagles dumb for not signing the guy. I’m fully convinced at this point that if the best player at every position who is is not currently on the team was killed, dead, but declared a free agent, Song, drummer and others, would fault the Eagles for not signing them. No team except for the detroit lions has expressed interest in Atogwe this offseason. That doesn’t tell us something? He’s available, the eagles haven’t signed him – therefor the Eagles are stupid?
Its too funny G..who have guys who are unfamiliar with the roster..Sean Jones is now a Buc…lmao..it gets funnier and funnier..Allen surely cannot play corner..reason why he was a second rd pick..if he was good enough to play corner hes a first rounder…man..cmon man this is elementary.
Paul..Hamlin..ur not serious..we should pick him up because he has a chip on his shoulder..wow..theres an excellent reason to pick the scrub up…im cool with atogwe…but i believe philly believes Nate Allen will be there Free Safety by season start..Q mikell will be next out the door..nearing 30..so we still guna need a SS..Lets just hope we have a serious pass rush to hid our question mark secondary….
“CHEAP BASTARDS”
This is nothing new. The FO is not going to spend money. This is the same old crap every year. Just face it, the FO is only concerned with how much Joe can make a dollar scream and a penny cry.
If this so called high caliber offense is playing catch up due to the defense allowing 17 or more points then who would be the blame. MMMM that guy is not here so certain people cannot blame him, mmmm maybe the receivers naaaa. MMMM, I know they want to blame the QB so WHO THE HELL is going to be the scape goat! Again the same old song and dance… but people will still buy into there crap.
As Silencer said Mikell is nearing 30 so his merciless crucifixion is just around the corner. I have no idea whether Allen or Atogwe could play SS, but perhaps there could be a situation in which we sign Atogwe, he starts at FS this year and maybe next year, and then either Allen or Atogwe take over for Q a SS. Food for thought.
He was injured last year and had some issue this off season.
Atogwe is closer to 29 than 28.
Putting Allen at CB is a HORRIBLE idea. He’s not a CB he’s a FS. He’s played FS his entire career. Everyone complains about them putting players at other positions but when its your idea suddenly it makes perfect sense.
Allen is the future at the FS position. Atogowe isn’t young enough to be the long term answer next to him. A few years younger, yeah. At 29, no.
Why will Atogowe pick up the Eagles complex scheme faster than Allen with now less time? Yeah he’s played under Spags but I’m doubting at this point the two defenses are that similar and he only played part of 1 season in it. Not much of a leg up IMO.
The Eagles are only one of an ever growing list of teams to say NO to Atogwe. Why? I’m assuming there is a reason.
IF, if he’d take a one year deal then yeah they should jump all over this. Other than that this doesn’t make as much sense as your oversimplified approach. Allen is going to be the starter at FS for the long term.
rokko and darby – you two are right the eagles are just too cheap to bring in FAs! Too cheap to sign Mike Bell. Too cheap to get Ernie Simms on the team. Too cheap to bring in Weaver, and then make him the highest paid FB ever. Too cheap to give Jason Peters and Asante Samuel huge contracts. Too cheap to extend Kolb and give him more money. Too cheap to bring in Tapp. Too cheap to extend the contracts of Omar Gaither, Stewart Bradley, Trent Cole. They were also definitely too cheap to make Mike Vick one of the highest paid backup QBs this year (if not the highest). Yep, they didn’t do all that. Stacy Andrews neither. Yep, you guys are right. Too cheap to bring in the best Special Teams coach in the league and a secondary guru to the coaching staff. If only they made moves and spent money.. . it would be different. Think often? Use your brains before you speak usually?
Interesting that Sean Jones was a safety with recent flashy stats, young, who excelled playing on a weak team. They signed him (weren’t they too cheap for that though!?) and he was a bust, people hated it. Then Atogwe is pretty much the same deal, but many want him? hmmm… compare their stats (both played 5 season prior to coming to the Eagles, if Atogwe would) – Atogwe is only slightly better there, slightly.
I strongly suggest to bring in Hamlin for a look-see since M Jackson is done for the year…
This way Nate Allen won’t be rushed in only to lose his confidence of trying to master everything in
his rookie year at a critical position on a ever changing and difficult Defense to play in…
To Schiller, I don’t the Eagles are too cheap (and haven’t been for the last 5-6 years.. but I do think they have overpaid for current players here recently…) A Samuel,Stacey Andrews,M Vick, L Weaver,J Peters, K Kolb, Q Mickell, I think are all overpaid if yo uask me…
You guys are lucky that Paulman doesn’t run the Front Office
pman – definitely disagree with you on Weaver. Though you have a point about some of the guys we got in free agency – that’s how you get free agents – the way the NFL works, you HAVE TO overpay for them. If free agents would sign a deal for what they are worth, they would never leave their original teams. And getting them becomes a bidding war. But I’m with you on that last sentence. Disagree about Hamlin, sure the D is tough, but this young/new D will have to gel and go through ‘growing pains’ anyway you cut it, with or without Hamlin. Nate Allen was deemed as NFL ready as any Safety coming out of the draft and I am FINE with him at FS. And like it or not, Macho and Demps are veterans by definition – they ain’t rooks. Remember that they signed Marlin Jackson prior to drafting Allen, before they knew that they had a real viable option there. You just love transactions Paulie. You’d be selling cigarettes if you ever got into jail – not for the cred or ego or perks, just to be making transactions. Ever run a pawn shop?
Great stuff from everyone!
Frankly, I know nothing about the guy. I was merely pointing out (once again) that the Eagles seem to grab more than their fair share of players coming off injury. Further, I mean to suggest that the Eagles sometimes ignore players who can help them at key positions, despite the fact that we were (at one time) close to winning the Superbowl. They passed on Randy Moss (twice), Plaxico Burress, and Tony Gonzalez, just to name a few.
Drummer – the last time that Randy Moss was a Free Agent, the Eagles offered him more money than the Patriots did, he chose the familiar situation. And I hear you about your sense that the Eagles sign more injured players than other teams. You’ve admitted that you haven’t made the comparisons/studied the facts on that but remember, this is FOOTBALL. Injuries are abound in this sport. Look at the redskins, they signed McNabb, Parker, Johnson, all noted to have had major injuries in their career and now they say they want Westbrook. The vast majority of NFL players have had significant injuries – can you argue against that? And yes, the Eagles certainly passed on Tony G. How they looking at TE right now? And who does Plaxico play for? The cell block As?
We need right now at this point before we can even consider the playoffs…RCB..C..Hobbs n Hanson lets all laugh out loud…Nick Cole at center..I Just pissed myself. .so all this is pointless until we can cover n protect..that should be the NFL motto for success in the NFL. I just patented it ..COVER N PROTECT.
All good points, Schill.
The Eagles passed on Moss the 1st time and could have made him an offer he couldn’t refuse the second time. After all, it became obvious after the T.O. fiasco that we needed a No. 1 receiver (after years of denial).
I compare the number of injured Eagles we pick up with the number picked up by other Eagles coaches. I don’t ever recall any coach/F.O. choosing so many injured players.
Schill, I’m not talking about people who have suffered injuries. Nearly any NFL player who’s been in the league for some time has been injured. I’m talking about people who are coming a season-ending injuries in the prior year. Seriously, how could anyone have expected Monte Reagor to return from that car accident?
Drummer – how did TO prove anything. He was injured prior to the playoffs, which means that we got to the superbowl without him. We got to the playoffs without him many times other years, and a bunch to the NFC championship game. The only thing the Eagles did with Terrell Owens that no other Reid team did was lose the Super Bowl (albeit to a cheating team).
Are you saying the the team was just as good without T.O.?
McNabb and T.O. had record-breaking seasons. It’s not like McNabb and T.O. were the only two playing the game. Our offensive line played terriblly. There was no running game and the defense completely fell apart in the second half of the Superbowl.
silencer I’m a bit forgetful do you remember which round Sheldon Brown was drafted? Since he was a pretty good corner I’m guessing it must have been the first round, right?
And I guess since Lito Sheppard having the same number of INT’s but less sacks and considerably less tackles than Sheldon was probably drafted in the second maybe even the third.
Drummer-And what did all those record breaking acheivements with McNabb and TO get us? Better stats…nothin more…but I wasn’t the one who got tired in the Super Bowl.
Atogwe is good…worse case scenario he goes to Dallas. .because Dallas has no FS right now. ..
Silencer- Cover-N-Protect…love it! Call it the Trojan! But you’re right. It doesn’t matter who the QB is, hell we could have Manning under cneter (The good Manning I mean) and I don’t think honestly he could do much more that McNabb ever did. It all starts with the Oline/DLine. Corners are now more suspect with Asante “business decision” Samuels at LCB and ??? at RCB (presumably E. Hobbs right now but that could change before the regular season) FS and SS need to be sorted out so whoever it turns out to be can gel as partners. Dawk and Mikell were good together because they knew eachother on and off the field and could predict eachothers decisions during the game. On the other side you can’t rely on a RB/FB to stay back in pass protection all day and it seemd last year that we did that way too much and that turnes it into a 9 on 11 game. WR’s/TE’s need to get off jams, T’s and G’s need to hold their ground and the C needs to keep the entire line on point. I know this is the obvious stuff however it seems we’re still lacking in those fundementals.
Lets face it the eagles wont sign him because they are rebuilding!!!! There not gonna win a superbowl this year so why waste the money. They drafted a guy who can hopefully play the spot. I hope he plays well! All we can hope for this year is to see some positive things out of these guys.
Silencer-I think we’ve given enough to Dalassholes already don’t you. If Atogwe is an upgrade at the FS/SS position than I say sign him. What’s the worst that could happen? He has a season ending injury? (we’re used to that) Perhaps he couls suck in this Philly system, well, we have a few others that suck already and a Rookie that might or might not be good enough in this system. He becomes a locker room problem or blows up on the sideline, we’ve delt with that too. And we all know that just because there are reports that Team X isn’t interested in Player Y doesn’t mean it will not happen. We’ve all been surprised before..ummm Mike Vick anyone???
Dawkplex-30 teams this year will not win the Super Bowl, does that mean they will not do what they can to improve their chances? Two consecutive years AFC championship game has featured 2 rookie QB’s, never say never…
Sorry, 31 teams. Looke like I can nither add nor spell today.
Drummer, no I’m not saying that. But I’m saying, in your response to ‘it be came obvious after the TO fiasco that we needed a #1 receiver’ – that we needed one to do what – lose the SB?
jopa – I honestly can’t tell if you’re joking or being serious. But Lito was a first round pick and Sheldon was a second.
Schiller,
Wasn’t L Sheppard a 2nd Rd Pick and S Brown a 3rd Rd pick…
Anyways, it doesn’t matter since both are no longer with the Eagles and have nothing to do with
the success of this Defense
No Paul, what I said was correct. I was going off of memory, but GEEZ – don’t you guys know how to use google or wikipedia? It took me less than 60 seconds to verify my statements.
and jopa – if you were being serious – what round a guy gets drafted in barely correlates to how good an NFL player they are. It’s all about hype and projections based on college and the scouting combine – usually that stuff is wrong. Do some research and you’ll see this is clear – see tom brady, marcus colston, trent cole, freddie mitchell, jamarcus russell, ryan leaf, brent celek, there’s tons of examples of guys who play great and weren’t drafted high. Tons of guys drafted very high who suck and never played well int he NFL.
yeah, it was sarcasm in response to silencer, it was to point out that it doesn’t matter where a player is drafted. The draft is a total crap shoot. I’ll have to be more blunt I guess.
nope, that was my bad. You could however make an argument for silencer’s point – safety’s are traditionally not taken in round 1 – unless they do have corner abilities – something that was said of both S’s taken in round 1 this year. But your general point on the draft is certainly what I agree with.
Schiller,
What’s “Google” and “Wikipedia” ???
Is this like another Star Wars or Harry Potter trilogy or movie ….
I am going back into my mother’s basement to take a nap…
Joepa..LOL…uhh its two different positions..so ur sarcasm makes no sense…all I said was that the two first rd safety’s wer able to play corner if need be…Allen cannot…he got smoke in man coverage, were as Earl n Berry excelled. But LOL u idiot, apparently ur reading comprehension is that of third graders..
next year -2-14
Nope, understood your point but it has no basis. Earl and Berry are safeties, period. And to your dumb point CB become WS when they slow down. Safeties don’t stand in as CB’s. It’s in your perceived draft nick brain what differentiates between picks by round. The bottom line is that no one knows when drafting and Allen may end be the best of the three. The point of my sarcasm is that a second round CB was better than the first round CB. It was the first to come to mind but I’m fairly certain I could do a little research and come up with the same analogie for safties.
I’m guessing the attack on intelligence is defensive.
Jeez that didn’t take long. Last year two safties were taken in the first round: Delmas and Chung. And guess what, the first safety taken in the second round; Byrd….get this went to the Pro Bowl. Wow! Don’t worry the first safties were taken by Detriot and New England, I sent each an email with Silencers contact information for input next year. They already had Paulmans contact informaton.
Look stupid..understand football please..both Berry and wrap CAN play CB..There are at times when ur D is blitzing and ur safety needs to play man…weather its a WR..TE..RB…if u have a all out..and a RB goes in motion to the slot , more than likely the safety has to pick it up…I still never said that because Earl n Berry wer picked first they wer guna be better fool…again ur reading comprehension now has been downgraded to a first grader.
Birdpoop likes men..