The Eagles are starting off Monday morning with a bit of good news: Stefen Wisniewski is back.
The 30-year-old veteran guard/center tweeted on Monday morning a photo of him signing a new contract to return to the Eagles. The one-year deal can be worth up to $2 million with incentives, according to a league source.
Not only is that a tremendous outfit, this is also a tremendous signing for the Eagles. Their biggest need this May was at interior offensive line and now they got back a guy who started in the Super Bowl for them a couple years ago.
The Eagles on Monday morning announced the signings of Wisniewski and QB Cody Kessler. They released QB Luis Perez and RB Nico Evans.
Earlier this offseason, the Eagles declined to pick up Wiz’s option, a move that gave them $3 million in cap space and left $700,000 in dead money. It was one of the moves I questioned most this offseason because it left a void in depth at a key position. But now, the Eagles have righted that wrong and they've done it at a considerably cheaper price.
It seemed like the Eagles wanted to give Wiz a chance to get a starting job elsewhere but when that job didn’t materialize, they welcomed him back.
NFL
He’s never been shy about his desire to be a starter in the league, but Wiz will come back to the Eagles as a backup. Really, he’s proven to be a capable player in the NFL, so he should be viewed as a top backup linemen in the league.
Since signing with the Eagles in 2016, Wiz has played in 46 games with 24 starts and he was the starting left guard for the Super Bowl run in 2017. Early in the 2018 season, he was benched for Isaac Seumalo. At the time, Wiz thought there were ulterior motives for that move and it was fair to wonder if there would be any bad blood that would prevent him from returning. Turns out there wasn’t.
Without Wisniewski, the Eagles’ top interior lineman would have been unproven Matt Pryor. But now with Wiz back, he can be their top backup guard and center, so if Jason Kelce ever goes down, the Eagles won’t have to disrupt two positions on the line. And with Brandon Brooks’ returning from an Achilles injury, depth is certainly welcome.
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