The Eagles are 2-0 and they are still shopping. On Tuesday, Philadelphia signed former Pro Bowl cornerback Kenny Moore III to a one-year deal worth up to $3 million. It is a practice squad contract for the moment, with a clear path onto the 53-man roster.
The plan, per NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo, is for Moore to play safety and nickel corner once he is activated. That detail matters more than the money does.
Howie Roseman does not add veterans in Week 3 for depth chart decoration. He adds them when he has seen something he does not like.
The Safety Experiment Is on the Clock
Here is the context. Cooper DeJean has moved inside to the slot as the nickel, which pushed Marcus Epps into the starting safety job next to Andrew Mukuba. On Sunday against the Titans, that pairing had a rough afternoon even in a win.
Epps got hurdled by Tennessee receiver Elic Ayomanor on a 41-yard gain and took a bad angle on a 27-yard Tyjae Spears run on third down. Philadelphia won anyway, which is what good teams do in September. But a shaky back end is the kind of problem that gets exposed in January, and Roseman clearly knows it.
Moore is not a warm body. He spent all nine of his NFL seasons in Indianapolis and made the Pro Bowl in 2021. He played 14 games with seven starts for the Colts last season and picked off a pass. He requested a trade this offseason, the Colts could not find a taker, and they released him.
At 31, he is no longer the player who terrorized slot receivers for Indy five years ago. He is still a veteran who has lived inside the formation for the better part of a decade and can line up in multiple spots without needing a tutorial.
Roseman Running His Usual Playbook
This is the second veteran reclamation of the week in Philadelphia. The Eagles brought back Zach Ertz after Dallas Goedert went down, and now they add Moore to a secondary with questions it would rather not answer on the fly.
Both moves cost almost nothing, and both are completely reversible. That is the entire appeal.
The practice squad framing is the smart part. Philadelphia does not have to cut anyone yet and gets to watch Moore work for a week or two before deciding whether he takes real snaps. If Epps steadies himself, Moore is insurance. If Epps does not, the replacement is already in the building and already learning the calls.
The counterpoint is fair. Veteran defensive backs signed to practice squad deals in September often stay on practice squad deals through December. Moore has never played safety as his primary job, and asking him to pick it up in-season on a contender is a real ask.
But the Eagles have the luxury of being right about this slowly. They are 2-0. The defense is holding up. If Moore gives them 20 snaps a game as a movable chess piece by November, the money looks like a bargain.
Roseman keeps making the same bet. He keeps cashing it.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.