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Heading into the 2026 NFL season, the Philadelphia Eagles are bringing back the vast majority of their 2025 starters.
Sure, Philly suffered a few notable exits, from trading AJ Brown to allowing Jaelan Phillips, Nakobe Dean, and Reed Blankenship to leave in free agency, but for the most part, Howie Roseman was able to restock the cupboard without too much turnover where it counts, utilizing every tool in his box to fortify one of the best rosters in the NFL.
At wide receiver, the Eagles have had arguably their biggest turnaround, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are worse off. Sure, losing Brown will be tough to replicate one-on-one, but Philadelphia really doesn’t need to. They added three new wide receivers with very different skillsets, Makai Lemon, Hollywood Brown and Dontayvion Wicks, to a room that already featured certified possession specialist DeVonta Smith, and will now be able to field a more balanced attack where offensive coordinator Sean Mannion can match up the right personnel for the right plays, instead of having to forcefeed the ball to Brown out of fear of his reaction to an uneventful afternoon.
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On defense, the team suffered some turnover as well, but considering how many big-contract Roseman has to juggle across his roster, he did a bang-up job filling any holes, with Riq Woolen already looking like a certified steal at the CB2 spot between Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean and Jihaad Campbell a ready-made replacement for Dean with a season of experience in Fangio’s defense on his resume.
Will it all work out? It’s hard to say, as expectations were high heading into 2025 too, but for the most part, things are looking pretty darn good for Philly’s finest, especially if this new addition can revert to his 2026 form, instead of playing more like his 2025 efforts.
Jonathan Greenard could make or break the Eagles’ pass rush
Ever since the Eagles said goodbye to Josh Sweat in free agency, Roseman has been on a mission to add a top-flight edge rusher to Vic Fangio’s defensive front.
First came Bryce Huff, one of the most dominant pass-rushing specialists in the NFL on a snap-to-snap basis during his tenure with the New York Jets. After agreeing to a three-year, $51.1 million contract in March of 2024, Huff struggled to become a three-down player in Fangio’s system, losing snaps to younger players like Nolan Smith and Jalyx Hunt before being a healthy scratch in the Super Bowl.
Fortunately, Roseman was able to move off of Huff one year before he retired from football altogether, netting a 2026 fifth-round pick – eventually used in the Tank Bigsby trade – from the San Francisco 49ers for his services.
Fast forward to 2025, and the Eagles added not one, not two, but three edge rushers mid-season in the hopes of getting a few more sacks on the outside, from a pre-retirement Za’Darius Smith to a post-retirement Brandon Graham and a former Fangio disciple from his Miami days, Phillips, who parlayed nine great games in midnight green into a nine-figure contract with the Carolina Panthers.
Heading into the 2026 NFL season, the latest Roseman addition is Jonathan Greenard, the former Houston Texans/Minnesota Vikings outside linebacker who was acquired for two third-round picks during the NFL Draft.
A player Roseman has reportedly liked for a while, Greenard has a resume that’s better than any edge rusher the Eagles have acquired since their latest Super Bowl win, with 38 sacks, 75 QB hits, and a Pro Bowl for good measure. He recorded 12.5 sacks during his final season with the Houston Texans in 2023, and while he didn’t exactly match that mark in 2024 as a member of the Minnesota Vikings, he came darn close, recording 12 on the way to his first Pro Bowl appearance.
While 2025 wasn’t as nice for Greenard from a traditional statistical perspective, recording just 19 tackles, 10 tackles for a loss, and three sacks over 12 appearances with 10 starts, he still ranked out as a top-32 edge rusher according to Pro Football Focus, with his 77.8 run defense grade ranking 12th among 115 qualifying players. These advanced metrics had Greenard and his agent, Drew Rosenhard, interested in renegotiating his contract to earn even more money despite having two more years left on his contract, but when it became clear that the two sides weren’t going to reach an agreement, Roseman swooped in, and for the low price of two third-round picks and a $100 million extension, he got his guy.
Now granted, does Greenard have to record double-digit sacks for this trade to work out? No, sacks are famously a stat that doesn’t directly correlate to pass-rushing success, but if Greenard can contact the quarterback early and often while playing with the elite interior pass-rushing duo of Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis, he has the potential to really make an impact in Fangio’s defense.
If, however, Greenard only hits opposing quarterbacks a dozen or so times, matching his 12 from 2025 instead of his 22 in 2024, then the Eagles will once again need Smith, Hunt, and Graham, assuming he re-signs, to step up alongside reserves like AJ Epenesa, Arnold Ebiketie, and rookie seventh-round pick Keyshawn James-Newby.
With Hunt and Smith still locked up on relatively cheap contracts for the next few years, it makes sense that Roseman took one more chance on a veteran edge before having to extend one or both of his young edges. If Greenard can play like Sweat instead of Huff as a veteran presence off the edge, it might just result in another Super Bowl-caliber defense, which, when coupled with Mannion taking over as offensive coordinator, could provide a winning formula for Nick Sirianni and company.
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