The Philadelphia Eagles are losing another practice squad player via poaching.
One day after the Atlanta Falcons signed cornerback Robert Longerbeam away from Philly, the Los Angeles Rams are adding Eagles undrafted rookie free agent safety Maximus Pulley to their roster.
This development notably comes ahead of the Eagles’ Week 4 home game against the Rams.
The Eagles temporarily elevated Pulley to the roster for their Week 2 game against the Tennessee Titans. He only played on special teams (six snaps)
but the Eagles presumably called him up to also provide depth at safety. Starter Andrew Mukuba ended up playing but he had been ruled questionable … and Marcus Epps and Michael Carter II were the only other full-time two safeties on the roster.
The Eagles still only have three safeties on their roster ahead of Week 3. They did officially add Kenny Moore II to the team on Wednesday but 1) he’s joining the practice squad to start out and 2) as primarily a nickel cornerback, he lacks extensive safety experience.
These two poachings come at a time while the Eagles are opting to keep an open roster spot. If they wanted to prevent either Longerbeam or Pulley from leaving, they probably could’ve just convinced them to stay in Philly by promoting them to the roster. Guessing the team wasn’t interested in going that route.
In addition to losing Longerbeam and Pulley, the Eagles previously lost four players to waivers after roster cuts: Cameron Latu (New England Patriots), Kapena Gushiken (Indianapolis Colts), Cameron Williams (Atlanta Falcons), and Myles Hinton (Cincinnati Bengals). Latu and Gushiken have already had some flashes with their new teams.
Is it the end of the world that the Eagles lost these players? Not necessarily. But while Howie Roseman certainly gets a lot of things right, it is fair to wonder about some of the roster mechanics that have been going on. Did they really need to keep four quarterbacks? Why was Eli Stowers placed on injured reserve prior to Week 1 instead of earlier (with one of their two designated for return spots, if necessary, which instead went to Jakorian Bennett and Grant Calcaterra)? Was E.J. Jenkins over Latu the right call? Did they need to keep vested veterans (who aren’t subject to waivers) like Elijah Moore (who has been a healthy scratch as the team’s seventh WR for two games) and Jonathan Jones on the roster?
Even if we assume that the Eagles were justified in making the decisions that they did, it’s not really ideal to be losing six players that the team liked to some extent.
UPDATED EAGLES PRACTICE SQUAD
OL Kiran Amegadjie
RB Jaydon Blue
LB Chance Campbell
TE Josiah Deguara
TE Zach Ertz
WR Xavier Gipson
EDGE Keyshawn James-Newby
C/G Jake Majors
DB Kenny Moore
OT John Ojukwu
RB Dameon Pierce
EDGE Mason Reiger
RB Carson Steele
EDGE Joshua Weru
S Cole Wisniewski
DT Uar Bernard (international exemption)
