MONDAY, 3:05pm: The Eagles have officially announced the signing of Moffitt, in a team release. To make room for the unretired guard on the roster, the club has parted ways with another lineman, Cole Manhart, who will have to pass through waivers before becoming a free agent.
THURSDAY, 6:03pm: The Eagles will sign recently unretired guard John Moffitt to a one-year deal, according to Ross Jones of Fox Sports (on Twitter).
A 28-year-old guard who announced his intention to return to the league June 17, Moffitt started 15 games in 2011-12 with the Seahawks before serving as a depth piece briefly with the Broncos in 2013 and ultimately retiring in November 2013.
After the releases of Todd Herremans and All-Pro Evan Mathis this offseason, the Eagles had potentially glaring guard issues that Moffitt would have the chance to help cover up. Although in Moffitt’s last two seasons of active duty, 2011 and 2012, he rated as a below-average guard, per Pro Football Focus’ advanced metrics.
Guard’s the only place on the Eagles’ line with performance questions, with Jason Peters, Lane Johnson and Jason Kelce residing at the tackle spots and center, respectively. Journeymen Allen Barbre and Andrew Gardner were the Eagles’ frontrunners at guard going into training camp. Moffitt will have the chance to compete with Dennis Kelly and Kevin Graf to take Mathis’ left guard spot, writes Chris Wesseling of NFL.com.
The Broncos, who waived Moffitt before he went unclaimed, traded for the former third-round pick from Wisconsin in 2013 after a deal with the Browns fell through. Midway through the Broncos’ AFC championship campaign, Moffitt walked away due to a lack of passion for the sport, he said at the time. But lingering drug issues came to light as well. Per Jay Glazer of Fox Sports, Moffitt’s recovered from the drug problems that plagued him previously.