With depth issues in the secondary, the Eagles on Tuesday brought in their 2016 sixth-round pick Blake Countess for a tryout.
Countess, 27, showed up on the NFL’s transaction wire Tuesday. Here it is via the MMQB’s Albert Breer.
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This season, bringing in a player on a tryout begins a lengthy COVID-19 testing process before a team can sign that player.
This move would make sense because the Eagles were decimated by injuries in the secondary on Sunday against the Saints. Rodney McLeod tore his ACL and is out for the season, Avonte Maddox suffered a significant knee injury of his own and Darius Slay got a concussion. All that is on top of already missing Michael Jacquet, Grayland Arnold, Cre’Von LeBlanc and Craig James with their various injuries.
The Eagles have just three games left this season and even if they did bring in Countess, he likely wouldn’t pass through the testing protocol in time to play this Sunday in Arizona. But it would eventually give them some depth with a player who has already had two stints in Philadelphia.
The Eagles drafted Countess out of Auburn in 2016 but he’s actually never played a game for them. After he was released at final cuts that year, he joined the Rams practice squad and ended up playing in 37 games (4 starts) for the Rams over the next three years.
NFL
During the 2019 offseason, Countess had a brief second stint with the Eagles but was cut during training camp. He then spent the 2019 season with the Jets, playing in six games.
So in his career, Countess has played in 43 total games and has 2 interceptions. He’s 27 now but the Eagles really liked him when they used a late-round pick on him five years ago.
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