Extra Points: Agholor’s Change of Scenery will be in Las Vegas
Wide receiver Nelson Agholor's new scenary will be the Vegas Strip.
His tenure with the Eagles officially ended on Saturday when the unrestricted free agent agreed to terms on a one-year contract with the Las Vegas Raiders, according to the Oakland Tribune.
Agholor experienced a puzzling career after joining the Eagles as a first-round draft pick out of USC in 2015. He got off to a rocky start but appeared to be ready to live up to his potential in 2017-18. He caught a combined 126 passes for 1,504 yards and 12 touchdowns in those two seasons.
Last season, however, he slumped again. A nagging knee injury limited him to just 11 games. He also demonstrated a glaring inability to track deep passes, incurring the wrath of Eagles fans.
After Agholor muffed a pass and lost a fumble in a 27-24 loss to Detroit on Sept. 22, he became the subject of a famous TV interview on Philadelphia's CBS TV affiliate. Hakim Laws, a former firefighter and U.S. Army veteran, played a role a dramatic rescue involving children during a fire.
"I see a guy hanging out the window screaming that his kids were in there," Laws told the station the next day. "My man just started throwing babies out and we were catching them, unlike Agholor and all his mishaps."
Agholor became the Eagles player to join another team in the last week, following linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill (Dolphins), running back Jordan Howard (Dolphins), safety Malcolm Jenkins (Saints) and tackle Halipoulivaati Vaitai (Lions).
Jenkins, who was released by the Eagles on Tuesday, signed a four-year, $32 million contract with the Saints on Wednesday. He penned a heartfelt, goodbye letter to Philadelphia Saturday in The Players Journal.
"PHILLY. We were together for six years!!" Jenkins wrote. "You saw me at my best and at my worst. You were always good to me, but more than that you were always real with me. And I will forever love you."
The Eagles made a move aimed toward trying to fill Jenkins' role in the secondary by agreeing to terms with former Denver Broncos safety Will Parks to a one-year deal, per ESPN.com. Parks, a Philadephia native, spent the previous four seasons in a part-time role with the Broncos. Last season, he had 35 tackles, one sack and one interception. The 6-foot-1, 194-pounder will presumably join Rodney McLeod and converted cornerback Jalen Mills in the Eagles' safety rotation.
The Eagles will try to replace Grugier-Hill with former Chargers linebacker Jatavis Brown, who agreed on a one-year deal on Saturday per NFL.com. Brown, 5-11 and 221 pounds, had 4.5 sacks and 265 tackles in four seasons in Denver, but played a drastically reduced role last season and registered just 10 tackles and no sacks in 13 games.
Parks and Brown are the third and fourth players added by the Eagles this week. They opened free agency by signing former Steelers nose tackle Javon Hargrave, then made a bigger splash Thursday by working a trade with Detroit for standout cornerback Darius Slay.
"I bring a lot of versatility," Slay told NBC Sports Philadelphia. "I can play outside, I can play slot, I can follow a guy, anywhere he goes I can go. If he lines up at RB I can play LB. With me, I was blessed with great ball skills and I'm a pretty fast guy and just have a knack for the ball, man. A knack for the ball. I like to cause turnovers. I love to give offenses great opportunities to put more points on the board. That's why I try to create more plays on the defensive side."
Slay, who agreed to terms on a three-year, $50-million extension with the Eagles, has 19 interceptions in his seven NFL seasons.
He grabbed Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz's first career interception in week 4 of the 2016 season and gave the ball to his son Darion. He's hoping to get Wentz to autograph it.
"Now that we're teammates, he'll probably have no problem signing it," Slay said. "I still got it, because that was one of my best games."