Rapoport: Eagles Are Being Run Like A Business Again

With the Eagles signing Defensive Tackle Fletcher Cox to a contract extension they have accomplished locking up their core players to contract extensions this offseason.  While some may be surprised with how much Guaranteed money was given to Cox by the Eagles, this deal financially is in line with other top line Defensive Lineman such as Ndamukong Suh, Marcell Dareus, and Jurrell Casey.  In fact Cox is younger than all of those players and he averages more tackles per season (at 40.5 tackles) than all of those other "elite" Defensive Tackles.

NFL Network's Ian Rapoport was a guest on The Sports Bash on Tuesday and said that this Fletcher Cox deal was done is very similar to how the organization was run and how player personnel was handle before the arrival of Chip Kelly:

"Before we know what happens on the field they've re-created a lot of what made them successful which is drafting players, developing them and then signing them to big deals before they come up for free agency.  (Sam) Bradford is the only one that was a little different from that...So I think basically you just shed all the weight from the Chip Kelly Era and you get back to what made the Eagles a really really good team four or five or six or seven years ago."

Rapoport explained the difference between what Howie Roseman has done this offseason in comparison with how the Eagles were run during the Chip Kelly Era:

"The Eagles are being run like a business again and that's really the biggest difference is they're they are doing smart, good deals, you don't screw the player, you don't screw the team, they're just smart good deals for the long term and not throwing a lot of money around and making splashy things.  There's nothing splashy about signing a Defensive Tackle to an extension but I think it's a smart move for the organization."

Listen to what Rapoport had to say about how the Fletcher Cox deal got done along with the unique business connection between Cox and Marcell Dareus of the Buffalo Bills