The Eagles have continued their active Thursday afternoon in free agency. After deals for Kenny Phillips and Cary Williams, the Eagles have now signed former Texans outside linebacker Connor Barwin.
The deal is reportedly for 6 years and $36 million with a maximum of $40 million with incentives.
Barwin is entering his fifth season after four years in Houston with the Texans. After a down year in 2012 that yielded just three sacks, an eight-and-a-half sack difference from his 2011 season, the 26-year-old will look to rebound with the Eagles.
Barwin is another sturdy, reliable defender who played in 1137 snaps for the Texans defense a season ago. He has also played in 16 games in 2009, 2011, and 2012 when he was healthy the full season. The former Texan missed 15 games in 2010 with an ankle injury but rebounded with an impressive 11.5 sacks in 2011.
Barwin was no slouch on the opposite side of Defensive Player of the Year J.J. Watt, swatting down 12 passes in the last two seasons, the Cincinatti graduate will bring a new feature to the Eagles defensive front seven.
A physical beast at 6-4, 268 pounds, Barwin will likely step into the Eagles new hybrid defense as an immediate starter. That makes five, maybe six, new starters for the Eagles in week one of 2013. New faces were to be expected for a team with a new head coach and new defensive scheme, let’s just hope that these players don’t take the money and run like many of the 2011 free agency class did.
Barwin will fit nicely as an outside linebacker for the new defense and will have a chance to replicate a season like he had in 2011 that included 11.5 sacks, seven pass defenses, and a forced fumble. It is a mystery still as to how the Eagles will fit all the pieces into place.
“He’s got a relentless motor,” says Howie Roseman on the newest Eagle. “We want to have young players in this organization with high motors so we got him,” is how he explained the six-year deal for Barwin.
Roseman said that “changing the culture on defense” was important for a new coaching staff. The Eagles have added some character players in the last 72 hours and the Eagles defense will almost be an entirely new cast from 2012. “We’re just about done, we’re focusing on the draft now,” concluded Roseman.
The Eagles eight signings so far in free agency give a good amount of hints as to which direction they will be going in the draft. Stay tuned for more Draft Prospect analysis by me in the next few days.
Follow Brenden on twitter @brendenp2011 or email him at BPeddigree2011@gmail.com.
With the 4th pick in the 2013 NFL draft The Philadelphia eagles select.
Geno Smith West Virginia!
Philly fans:
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Deja Vu from 1999
If that happens lets hope the negative a.holes are wrong again
this negative non a-hole is correct every year, Jeff Lurie 0-17 in Super Bowl tries.
Psss I’ll let you in on another secrete the Eagles franchise won’t win again this year either ( 0 – 48) and Jeffery (0-18)
I predict every team will not win the SB next year! I will have a great prediction percentage I will be right 31 times and wrong once yeah me… No sir you truly are an a.hole
Dont we all wish that happened. Seems like we would have a franchisr qb for the next 10 years then. Isnt that what happened?
It looks like we can expect the Eagles to draft with their first pick one of those O-linemen or maybe Geno Smith, their saying his pro day went great today and he’s moving up the charts, we might even have a couple teams, the Jags at 7 and the Bills at 8 fighting to trade up to get him, that would be even better for us, I wouldn’t have a problem going to 7 or 8 with a few picks added.
geno will not be drafted by us. no way no how. they are trying to rebuild this team, get young and redefine itself and if you look at chips resume and track record he doesn’t value the qb like most other head coaches.
Andrew the Jags pick 2 and they released the entire secondary so they need picks more then Smith so the Eagles need to move on this if they think Geno is the guy. The pick might be Fischer if they don’t add any lineman during FA.
Like the Barwin signing. Unlike Kruger, he’s a three down player, 26 yo and only a year removed from an 11 & 1/2 sack season. He’s a former B-Ball player so not just a big guy, but an athlete. Not completely sold on CB Williams, but he is a physical, edgy player thats not afraid to tackle like our last two turds.
Kruger had 9 sacks this year 42 tackles
Barwin had 3 sacks this year 44 tackles
I do like that the eagles are moving away from pewees on defense though
Just to clarify with some of you with limited knowledge
Barwin was awesome when he played weakside in the 3-4
He was moved to strongside due to injury to Reed…..strongside covers the tight end…he didnt get a chance to rush the QB this past season.
Eagles will let him rush the passer
cool. hopefully it pans out. I’m just going by stats and pros opinions.
and if Kenny Phillips has recovered and Bradley Fletcher is not hurt,and Patrick Chung gets to play 16 games, and if James Casey was 1st string, and if Connor Barwin plays the weakside Blah Blah Blah If if if
IF CONNOR BARWIN WAS ALL THAT, HE’D STILL BE IN HOUSTON
Texans only have 10 mill in cap space
mhenski – I was just being a pest – he has to be a better option than graham or they wouldn’t have targeted him, with a nice contract — I am looking/ expect 10 sacks next year and that is an above average NFL player
I hope ur right. I love his size 1 thing is for certain midget d is overwith
EOS, By your stupid thinking, Mike Wallace sucks cause he would still be in Pitt, Welker sucks, Cliff Avril sucks cause he would still be in Det, Long sucks, Goldson sucks etc….Hell why even sign anybody from free agency because if they were any good their old teams would never let them go.
Im not thrilled about the Barwin move but I think it goes with the culture they are trying to build here (bringing guys in that seem to actually play like they care and come from good teams/good fundamentals). More importantly Im OK with it because its ONLY 8 mill guaranteed. So if he ends up being a nobody then who cares, it was for small money. The years and the 36 million mean nothing in the NFL.
And btw, Houston offerred Barwin a similar deal last year and were in nego to try and keep him.
Fuck last year’s defense. Seriously. Fuck ‘em. Everyone who played in that secondary was a disgrace to the uniform. Everyone except Kurt Coleman because he played hard and his only problem is that he’s terrible. DRC out there scared to tackle and Nnamdi back-peddling pondering string theory while getting burned by every receiver with two legs. Fuck that defense. Glad to see Chip and Howie understood that the whole culture and talent needed to be turned over.
Les Bowen reported barwins deal is in actuality 3 yrs 13.5 million.
Also reported that they offered Keenan Lewis a better deal than he received from the saints.
Career stats-
Kruger- 2009-2012
tackles- 69
sacks- 15.5
Barwin- 2009-2012
tackles- 109
sacks- 19.0
Kruger 6 starts
Connor 32 starts and only 3.5 sacks more but if you add playoff sacks Kruger sails past Conner with 4.5 to ZERO
Talk to any big Ravens fan and they will tell you Kruger is not nearly worth the kind of money he got and that all he did was pick up the scraps from Ray Lewis, Ngata and Suggs getting double teamed. Also E0SB, there’s a reason the Ravens didn’t resign him so stop playing both sides of the fence. And try to go 5 minutes without crying. Provide some actual insight and opinions as to what you would rather do.
I would rather the Eagles hired Perry Fewell as the New Head Coach and stuck with the 4-3 defense with Reggie White & Clyde Simmons size DE. Kind of like the 2 time NYG game plan of the the last 10 years with Strahan and Pierre Paul.
2 time super bowl champion NYG of the last 10 years
Now was that so hard to actually give a decent football opinion?
Crazy couple of days. Hard to put it into words so I guess I’ll let Boyz II Men do the talking. #BullsOnParade http://youtu.be/zDKO6XYXioc
@ConnorBarwin98 Connor Barwin Retweet
ConnorBarwin98
.
He doesn’t sound too excited to be leaving Houston for Philly with a “End of the Road”, Boys to Men song
Go away for 5 days and return to see the Birds signing 1/3 of the free agents available on the market. Interesting.
Ha i had a feeling they were gonna reach out to an impact player. I like the Barwin signing. Big, strong, quick, and can get to the QB. Solid signing
Yeah well sacks aren’t everything, we can ask Jason Babin that
This brings hope the eagles are adding competition at every roster spot on this team. That means they can draft best player available and let chips fall. They can even cut a guy like Phillips in camp (1 Year Deal) if they get a stud safety in the draft. Players with some size and on the right side of 27/28 years of age. (except the NT from SF) But now you can wait and draft a size weight strength guy later rounds and let him develop into a NT if you want. If Dixon can pick it up you don’t even need to do that for a year or two. I love the middle of the road NFL quality player signings vs all eggs in one basket (Namdi) signing. You only splurge on that one last big peice when you know you are close Ala TO in 2004.
Shariff Floyd, Howie Plsss….Shariff Floyd.. We need another pass rusher!!!
no
If we are going to draft a pass rusher, we draft Ziggy Ansah,,,,,,,
Shariff Floyd is an overhyped pre-draft prospect that won’t be half of what he is advertised to be…..
Sheldon Richardson, is who you need to pay attention to…..
There’s a good possibility Floyd will be there. I have no problem syicking him next to Cox the next 10 years.
He is smaller than Mike Patterson, gives good effort, but will be no more productive. Forgive me Dag, my standards are little higher, I have a problem with drafting overhyped mediocrity.
Barwin ran a 4.47 which is pretty impressive
This still is not Goldson.
Dude, let it go. Goldson is not Ronnie Lott.
We got like three dudes (likely starters) for the price of Goldson. That is value. If you want a guy like Goldson you have to draft him teams can not afford to add talent at the top market prices (UNLESS- It is the final piece of the puzzel)
Kenny Vaccaro
btc…who is the better safety?
Philips or Goldson?
Philips is good enough to start at safety for a super bowl winning team. That will work for me.
When healthy Phillips is bigger, stronger and faster. Phillips is really good when healthy.
I’m looking at this Adam Caplan guy and he is seriously pathetic. Is this guy an extension of Dave Spadaro or what?
He’s total biased which brings his credibility into question and reputable news outlets need to stop interviewing him as if he’s an objective sports journalist.
He’s a brown nosed puppet used to get into the mainstream to do interviews outlets would never call Dave Spadaro to do.
Someone call this loser out already.
.
No more wide nine. No more speedballs no more midgets that get run over and corners who were a disgrace to the uniform.this will be a punishing defense ,inflicting pain and making the Lincoln financial center a bad ass place ….ahhhh …E. A G L. E. S. will resonate again ….rocky will ball up ..I’m liking the approach on defensive side of the ball and creating a new culture with no cancers spoiling the brew…The draft appears like- a big ass offensive lineman will be there focus…
Kenny Phillips, when healthy, is a Top 10 Safety
He’s solid in Pass coverage, very good versus the run and what I really like is that he knows the NFC East very well and will be a real Asset
When playing against NFC Divisional Games
People, this is all Howie Roseman this year, Lurie can’t put anything on anybody else, how do you think he’s doing so far ? I gave him good marks as of now .
People, this is all Howie Roseman this year, Lurie can’t put anything on anybody else, how do you think he’s doing so far ? I gave him good marks as of now .
I really like the moves we’ve made. I think we’re getting guys who are definitely upgrades over what we have and also guys who are not just looking to sign a fat check. We’ve upgraded both safety positions, picked up an extremely versatile TE in James Casey, signed a starting OLB in Barwin, and IMO, upgraded both CBs with Fletcher and Williams who will actually tackle people.
On top of that, we’ve made moves that were necessary in transition to a defensive scheme and signed a starting NT in Sopoaga. I’m really exicted about the draft. I really think we sign Fisher/Joeckel or Geno Smith now.
Songs, according to Profootballfocus’ rankings of the free agent safeties, Goldson was ranked second and Phillips was ranked third. While I will not argue that Goldson is a very good safety, I don’t know if he’s worth the kind of money he made with the Bucs; especially considering his age. According to PFF, here’s the big downside with him:
“Goldson has lapses as a tackler as he missed one every 6.6 attempts, a mark that ranked 44th out of 58 qualifying safeties.”
Kenny Phillips: age 26
Dashon Goldson: turns 29 in two months
Goldson: Healthy.
Phillips: Deteriorating knee, hurt every year.
Big difference. If he stays healthy, IF, it could be a steal. Keep your fingers crossed.
Songs I thought u a abandoned ship? Aren’t you a redskin/Seahawk/49er fan now. Please go to those teams sites with your unrealistic nonsense.
concrete_m, save your breath. I’ve been calling out Songs for switching teams for months now but he chooses not to respond or indicate why he’s still here on this site.
Wait til we draft Geno Smith, he’ll be a full fledged Birds fan again! XD
Wrong DCar, he was back as soon as they signed Vick for the year…Im gonna hold off on any analysis till after the draft.
I like the idea of replacing the entire secondary. Even if 2 of the free agents don’t work out, you have upgraded at least %50. I also like the idea that they are picking guys from teams that have either won or gone to the superbowl recently. Winners don’t give up. They hate losing. This recent Eagles team got paid in the off season, and could have cared less about winning.
This could and should be an exciting draft. For the first time, I would not be upset if the Eagles traded down in the first round to pick up an extra high draft pick. The Eagles are paying Vick too much money to Draft and pay Geno Smith in the first round. It’s all a smoke screen. When they paid Vick and brought in a player that knows the system, they played their cards at the QB position. The interest they are showing is for a QB hungry team that is under the Eagles. Even if they draft Geno, they will trade him on draft day to a team that really wants him.
After nearly jumping off the Walt Whitman Bridge, when the Eagles passed on Gus Bradley, I have gone back to my usual routine of drinking the Kool-aid in hopes that my natural senses are wrong and somehow signing injured former star players will bring a championship to Philadelphia.
At least they all have size. This will be a fun draft to watch.
Good points BSM. For those of you that don’t want the Eagles to draft Geno Smith, who in the hell is going to be our QB? Vick is a stop gap solution for this year and he likely will not play in all 16 games. The top tier QBs next year are all likely to go in the top 10 and I’m pretty confident at this point that the Eagles will not be drafting in the top 10. Kelly is clearly not sold on Nick Foles running his type of offense. No Super Bowl is going to be won without a franchise QB.
Foles
no way bsm that is outdated thinking… with the rookie wage scale and vick at a moderate $7 mill i think is his base– it isn’t a big deal you can carry a high first rounder with him.
The Eagles could pick him and then trade Vick for to the Bills their 3rd Rounder. Call Marty to see if he want Foles for a 4th to the Jets, then package the those 2 picks to a team for another 2nd rounder.
Songs, I like when you make posts like this where you actually come up with some real opinions. I also like your suggestion here.
Im not going to lie…. i think Geno Smith would be a goood fit in philly because he wants to throw… not run around.
If im the eagles…. I sit back and hope to get wowed. If i dont….. take Geno and trade both Vick and Foles.
We’re not drafting Smith, and Vick, and Foles aren’t going anywhere……
They’reusing this bogus attention to Geno Smith, in hopes that someone interested in him like the Cards, Bills, or Browns, will give them a nice package to move down.
They may draft Mike Scott in the 3rd,……may
Hey Cliff, I told u Eagles would heavily pursue Barwin
You doubted me again… (As well as Casey and Soapaga)
I wouldn’t brag about it… I still say he’s not all that, I’m really not impressed with that signing, but he serves a purpose in the 3-4.
– Shrugging my shoulders like so what really – …………
Your slipping GMCliff.. Ga ha. Just bustin Bro’..
I see one major signing along the OL and then maybe a couple of
Other minor delth pick-ups (maybe an inside LB Larry Grant, at least I am hoping) Kendrick’s is too small to play ILB I believe in the 3-4 and will gobbled up at the point of attack by NFL Guards
Thats why I would transition him to SS, and draft a Jamie Collins, Sio Moore – who I also believe can play SS – , or Ty Powell to shore up that LB Corp……
I’m not slipping at all buddy, I guarantee that most of the guys That I am suggesting will be future stars if they are used properly.
Agreed Stevo.. I am rather hoping though that the birds are in a position to get someone to cough up a 1 next year and 1 this year plus a 2nd or 3rd to come get smith. That would allow the birds to get more talent this year and move up next year if needed to secure a top QB. I really do not care as long as MV7 is out the door by the end of training camp. Preferably the end of the draft.