Before Nolan Carroll suffered a season-ending injury on Thanksgiving in Detroit, the veteran corner was playing at a very high level for the Eagles in 2015.
Now, he’s ready to prove that wasn’t a fluke.
In fact, the healing corner said it was his preference to sign a one-year deal as a free agent this offseason.
“I feel like that’s the best way to go about it,” Carroll said at a press conference on Friday, a couple days after agreeing to come back to the Eagles on a one-year deal worth $2.3 million. “Just come back and show them that last year wasn’t a fluke. And I have no problem proving that.”
But first, he has to get healthy.
Carroll, 29, suffered a nasty injury in that nationally televised Thanksgiving game. The team announced the injury as a broken ankle, but Carroll cleared it up on Friday.
He actually broke the lower part of his right fibula near the ankle and damaged some ligaments. Now, he’s recovering from surgery — which included inserting a few screws — to repair the leg.
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“Right now, I’m feeling good, I’m feeling healthy,” Carroll said. “Every single day for me it’s about improving.”
While Carroll said it was his preference to sign a one-year deal, it’s very likely his injury altered his value on the open market.
“Any time a guy has an injury and nobody is really able to see him hands-on and able to see how he’ll progress in the future, it’s kind of one of those taking-a-risk type of things,” Carroll said. “Maybe it did, maybe it didn’t.”
Even with the injury, Carroll still garnered interest outside the NovaCare Complex.
He even flew to Dallas for a visit with the Eagles’ NFC East rivals, the Cowboys. And it was a little bizarre.
“It was just weird, man,” Carroll said. “Being here and playing here and knowing that I’ve played against those guys a few times, it felt weird to be in that facility and see some of those players and guys that I’ve played against. I felt like it wasn’t the fit right now. I felt like my fit was here in Philadelphia.”
In Philadelphia, Carroll will likely have a chance to be back in the starting lineup in 2016. In his first year with the Eagles in 2014, he started just one game before becoming an every day starter last season.
When Carroll went down last year, it allowed Eric Rowe to start and the rookie played well. Carroll said his role was just making sure Rowe played with confidence.
With Byron Maxwell out of town after the Eagles traded him to Miami, it seems likely — at least before the draft — some combination of Carroll, Rowe and free-agent pickup Leodis McKelvin will start next season.
But Carroll claimed the Maxwell trade didn’t play into his decision to return. He just wanted to come back to a place with which he had familiarity.
“The past two years have been great, honestly,” Carroll said. “I said that I’ve never been apart of something like this, a city like this, where they care about the team so much. They care about the players. It’s the same way for me. I care about the city, I care about the players on the team and that’s why I came back. I felt like there’s no other place like this.”