The Eagles have released linebacker Corey Nelson, as Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports (via Twitter). The moves does not come as much of a surprise, as we learned a few days ago that Philadelphia was expected to cut the Oklahoma product, which puts the team on track to pick up a sixth-round compensatory pick in the 2019 draft.
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Nelson spent the first four years of his career with the Broncos, who selected him in the seventh round of the 2014 draft. He mostly served as a special teams ace in Denver, although he did start six games during the 2016 campaign. As McLane tweets, the Eagles signed Nelson as a free agent this offseason with the purported intention of having him compete for the starting weak-side linebacker job. However, he was never really given time with the first-team defense, and he did not stand out during the reps he did get, which generally came with the third-string unit.
The Eagles will save about $1MM in cap space by releasing Nelson, though they will also take on $600K in dead money (the amount of Nelson’s signing bonus). Mike Klis of 9News tweets that he would not be surprised if the Broncos are interested in bringing Nelson back into the fold, while Cameron Wolfe of ESPN.com suggests that the Dolphins could also be a fit (Twitter link).
The Eagles signed Jaboree Williams to take Nelson’s place on the 90-man roster.
Surprised when they signed him and talked about competing to start…not surprised he’s cut already as he’s just a depth piece and not a starting LB.