Cornerback Still Top Roster Battle for Eagles
The Eagles will suit up for their fourth and final preseason game on Thursday night, with a few questions still to be answered.While there are still some interesting roster battles, none stand out more than the battle at cornerback. Sure, the Eagles have added Ronald Darby to help solidify the position, but they still have question marks in the secondary.
"I think the corner position, corner-nickel position is going to be an interesting battle this week," admitted Eagles head coach Doug Pederson on Sunday. "It will be interesting this week to see how that plays out."
With Darby and second-year man Jalen Mills the likely starters, it's Ron Brooks, rookie Rasul Douglas, free-agent addition Patrick Robinson.
"[We] still want to create some competition at that spot and bring in as much depth as you can. Listen, like I said after the game the other night to the players, and I might have mentioned it to you guys, they got to make it tough on us. [They have] make it tough on us to add the right depth and to have the right guys on this football team. This just adds to the talent level at that spot.
You can add newcomer Dexter McDougle to the battle for the nickle position.
"In our case with McDougle, adding more depth to corner-nickel position," Pederson said. "Just letting him come in here and compete, and see where he's at."
"He's a young kid that we're excited about getting him in here and getting him going with the defense."
As for some other roster battles to keep an eye on in the final game on Thursday night, Pederson mentioned a couple of guys on the offensive side of the ball.
"Got a couple young tight ends that I'd be interested to see in this last pre-season game. You look on offense, and again there's a couple of young offensive linemen. [T] Dillon Gordon, [T] Taylor Hart, guys like that that are competing for spots. It's going to be fun to watch these guys, not only in practice this week, but, again, on Thursday night."