NFC Notes: Eagles, Giants, Fleener

In an excellent piece for CBS Sports, former NFL agent Joel Corry sets forth how the Eagles might approach this offseason, and he offers his take on the team’s prospects in the short- and long-term. The roster, of course, is loaded, thanks to quality drafting, savvy trades, and an MVP-caliber QB playing on a rookie contract. But cap space is at a premium and will continue to be in the near future.

Luckily for Philadelphia, 19 of its 22 starters are under contract for the 2018 season, but the team will still need to create cap space. The Eagles could ask LT Jason Peters, who is expected to return next year, to take a pay cut, and they could create $5MM of space by declining Torrey Smith‘s 2018 option and another $5MM by releasing or trading Vinny Curry, all of which look like real possibilities. The expected extension of Brandon Graham would also free up some room.

Corry also believes that the team should not trade Nick Foles unless someone makes an offer that Philadelphia cannot refuse, which sounds like at least a second-round pick.

Now for more from the NFC:

• Eagles OC Frank Reich has emerged as the favorite for the Colts’ HC job, and assuming the two sides can strike a deal, Philadelphia will almost certainly not let RBs coach Duce Staley interview for the Giants’ OC vacancy, as Ralph Vacchiano of SNY.tv tweets (indeed, Staley could become the Eagles’ next OC if Reich departs). Yesterday, Vacchiano and Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com broke down where Big Blue’s OC search currently stands, and it’s not exactly good news for new head coach Pat Shurmur.
• As we learned this morning, the Buccaneers fired defensive line coach Jay Hayes, and Roy Cummings of Florida Football Insiders suggests that more pink slips could be coming for Tampa Bay’s coaching assistants, as the team has still not formally announced its 2018 coaching staff.
• Greg Auman of the Tampa Bay Times believes the Buccaneers could turn to Brentson Buckner as a potential replacement for Hayes (Twitter link). Buckner served as the Cardinals’ defensive line coach from 2013-17, and Arizona’s DL was generally quite successful under Buckner’s watch. Tampa Bay GM Jason Licht was the Cardinals’ VP of player personnel in 2013, so he has some personal familiarity with Buckner.
• Last Wednesday, $3.4MM of Coby Fleener‘s 2018 base salary became guaranteed, as Nick Underhill of the Advocate points out (via Twitter). The Saints‘ tight end is under contract through 2020, but he has not become the top target for Drew Brees that many expected when he signed with New Orleans several years ago. The Saints could have saved $3.2MM against the cap by releasing him prior to Wednesday, but there is no obvious replacement on the roster, and if he has not been medically cleared following his season-ending concussion, that could have further complicated matters. It therefore looks like Fleener will be back in New Orleans in 2018.
• The 49ers recently signed QB Jimmy Garoppolo and DE Cassius Marsh to contract extensions before they could hit the open market, and Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee looks at the rest of San Francisco’s free agent class to determine who might be next in line for a new contract. Some of the more prominent names on the list include center Daniel Kilgore, with whom the team has had contract discussions, Carlos Hyde, who may be on his way to a team that features more of a power-running approach, and DE Tank Carradine, whose talents may also be better-suited to a different scheme.