The Eagles kicked off free agency today by signing Juqua Thomas, a DE who played in every game last season for the Eagles, to a 5 year deal. ESPN reports:The Philadelphia Eagles neared their second key re-signing in three days by reaching a five-year, $12.5 million deal with defensive lineman Juqua Thomas that could be worth up to $1 million more per year with incentives.This is a good move for the Eagles adding a talented body and needed depth to the defensive line.Thomas, 26, was considered one of two top re-signings this week for the Eagles. They reached a deal earlier this week with safety Quintin Mikell but their attention had been on Thomas for the past two weeks. The hold-up was a technicality in last year's contract: Because Thomas made the NFL minimum exception that saved the Eagles cap dollars, he wasn't allowed to do a new deal until free agency started.
This move follows the singing of Quintin Mikell and back up QB A.J. Feeley. These all appear to be solid moves by the Eagles but certainly not very sexy ones. The Inquirer also says that Eagles fans shouldn't keep their hopes up of the exciting big name players coming to Philly. The Eagles went with the approach to resign young, promising Eagles to long term deals and likely save money in the long term, but not this season.
"We just reached the point where we had such quality that continuity and retaining those players was even more valuable than having cap flexibility," Banner said. "We decided this was the time to go out and do those deals. We did more long-term contracts than any team in the league."
