The Eagles have signed cornerback Steven Nelson to a one-year deal, per a club announcement. Nelson’s one-year deal will furnish him with $2.5MM in base salary with the chance to make up to $4.125MM with incentives (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport). To make room on the roster, the Eagles have released defensive tackle William Henry. 
The Steelers released Nelson way back on March 23rd. Ever since, he’s been fielding interest from roughly half the league. Fourteen different teams reportedly reached out to him, including the Texans, Bears, Bengals, and Bills. Ultimately, the Eagles came away with the veteran.
Nelson was originally drafted by the Chiefs in the third-round in 2015. After a four-interception 2018 season for Kansas City, he signed a three-year, $25.5MM pact with Pittsburgh. He’s started 30 games for the Steelers over the last two seasons. And, in 2020, he notched nine passes defended and two interceptions.
Nelson has been a solid starter, and has received strong marks from Pro Football Focus. In fact over the last two years, PFF has him graded as the NFL’s 11th-best cornerback. Now, the 28-year-old will look to boost the Birds’ secondary, likely starting opposite of Darius Slay. The duo will be supported by rookie Zech McPhearson with slot support from natural nickel Avonte Maddox.
I still don’t get how he isn’t on a LT deal? Good pickup for the Eagles but still puzzling.
Well in fairness he was released after the first (maybe even second) wave of FA. And clearly felt underpaid in PIT, so he surely wasn’t bending over backwards for the security a long term deal provides.
Seemed likely & logical at that point he’d end up settling for the best 1 year prove it deal he could find.
We definitely need him to play cornerback, not another left tackle. I think he’s a little small for the position anyway.
Should state Nelson forced his release from the Steelers.
Meh. He wanted an extension/raise. That’s really all we know for sure. Steelers disagreed with his assessment of his value, and, more importantly, HAD to cut *someone* making a decent clip. They clearly weren’t ready to make a call on DeCastro at that point, so it was honestly likely him or Ebron anyways.
He is better than anyone else Eagles have for the #2 cb spot, but I’d be worried about 3 teams in 6 years. Why doesn’t anyone want to keep him long term? And it was the Chiefs and the Steelers also, it’s not like he was in bad organizations. I like the signing but the nobody wanting to keep him around thing worries me a lot.
It’s a one year prove it deal , so next year they’ll have a better idea if he or anyone else presently on the roster are keepers. Next year the Eagles will have plenty of high draft picks and much more salary cap flexibility. Remember many of Howie’s long term contracts have backfired in the last few years.
That…that wasn’t my point?
Nice small salary wise picks
This cornerback duo reminds me of when the Eagles signed DRC, traded for Nnamdi Asomugha, all the while Asanti Samuel was the CB that moved to Safety to accommodate these moves. Someone called us the “dream team” and….
What happened?
All hell broke loose and we got whipped like Leon Spinks in about as much time.