Eagles Stay or Go 2022: Which defensive tackles will be back?

Reuben Frank and Dave Zangaro bring back Stay or Go in 2022, trying to figure out the futures of every Eagles player on the roster.

We already looked at receivers, cornerbacks, running backs and linebackers.

Up today: Defensive tackles

Fletcher Cox

Roob: There are 26 million reason Cox will be here. He’s got a $14.946 million cap hit if he stays and will count $40.928 million if he goes. So he stays. It’s really that simple. Cox, who’s 31 now and entering his 11^th season, isn’t what he used to be, and the first half of last year he wasn’t really close. But the Eagles really have no choice to keep him and hope that a second year in Jonathan Gannon’s scheme will help him at least be an above-average player.

Verdict: Stays

Dave: We saw a decline in Cox’s play in 2021 but he did play better down the stretch as he and Jonathan Gannon came to a better understanding. The Eagles were open to trading Cox before the deadline last year but they ended up keeping him and he did play better down the stretch. The current structure of Cox’s salary makes it pretty clear he’s going to be here in 2022 unless the Eagles want to swallow an exorbitant amount of dead money. I think it’s much more likely that he’s on the roster than a trade.

Verdict: Stays

Javon Hargrave

Roob: Hargrave had a dominating first month – six sacks in five weeks – but had just 2 ½ sacks the rest of the year as offenses made him more of a priority than Cox. Hargrave made his first Pro Bowl as an alternate, which is great for him, but the combination of Hargrave and Cox combined for just 5.0 sacks the last 11 games of the season and considering what they’re getting paid that’s not going to cut it. Hargrave is very good against the run, and he’s only 29 so he’s in his prime. I would just like to see more consistency in 2022.

Verdict: Stays

Dave: It’s hard to believe that Hargrave is already entering the final year of the three-year, $39 million contract he signed before the 2020 season. After a white-hot start in 2021, Hargrave slowed down some but still ended up in the Pro Bowl with a career-high 7.5 sacks and will be back for 2022. Really, it’s time for the Eagles to start thinking about an extension for the 29-year-old defensive lineman. Hargrave has a base salary of $12.75 million in 2022, so an extension would lower that number and his cap hit of over $17.8 million.

Verdict: Stays

Hassan Ridgeway

Roob: For a guy who played a significant number of snaps – 373 for the year, or about 22 per game – Ridgeway was virtually invisible after a huge game in the opener in Atlanta. Gannon is going to rotate four tackles, so that fourth guy has to make some sort of impact, and Ridgeway really didn’t. I’ll be shocked if the Eagles don’t draft an interior lineman in the first three rounds – maybe even in the 1^st round – so I would anticipate a rotation of Cox, Hargrave, Milton Williams and New Guy in 2022.

Verdict: Goes

Dave: This was a tough one for me because, no, Ridgeway wasn’t great in 2021. But he finally stayed healthy and on a veteran salary benefit deal (which is a minimum deal that counts less against the cap), Ridgeway still had 20 tackles and 2 sacks. So maybe the Eagles just want to run it back with him as a depth option. But, ideally, they’d get younger at those depth spots.

Verdict: Goes

Marlon Tuipulotu

Roob: Barely played this year as a rookie 6^th-round pick, and there’s no indication he can be a viable part of this defensive line. Happy to let him stick around on the practice squad and see if he can develop, but the Eagles need to get significantly better up front, and I don’t see Tuipulotu being a part of that.

Verdict: Goes

Dave: I had higher hopes for the Eagles’ 6th-round pick out of USC. He barely played in 2021 and I didn’t see enough flashes from him back in training camp either. Unless, he improves quite a bit, I think he’s on the outside looking in.

Verdict: Goes

Milton Williams

Roob: It was fun watching Williams this year as a 3^rd-round rookie. He just got better and better as the year went on and was really the only member of the d-line rotation who was consistently solid throughout the season. He was really a tackle-for-loss machine by the end of the season – five in the last five games, seven for the season. I don’t know what his ceiling is, but he’s going to be a big-time piece of this defense for at least the next few years.

Verdict: Stays

Dave: The third-round pick from Louisiana Tech ended up having a promising season. While he didn’t pile up sacks (he had just 2), he did show he can be disruptive from a few different positions along the line. He played inside and outside as a rookie, although his best spot long-term is probably inside. The good thing about Williams is he seemed to get better as the year went on. Look for him to continue that with a bigger role in Year 2.

Verdict: Stays

Marvin Wilson

Roob: The Eagles kept Wilson on the practice squad all year and then he played in the meaningless finale vs. the Cowboys, so there must be something they like about him. But as an undrafted free agent, he’s facing an uphill battle to find a spot on this roster.

Verdict: Goes

Dave: This is one of my bigger surprises of the Stay or Go series. Wilson joined the Eagles’ practice squad after he was released at final cuts by the Browns, who paid a ton to draw him there as a UDFA. They gave Wilson a $30,000 signing bonus and $162,000 guaranteed. It wasn’t that long ago that people thought of Wilson as a potential first-round pick if he came out after the 2019 season. But Wilson went back to FSU and his value tanked to the point where he wasn’t even drafted last year. He didn’t get last spring or summer in Philly, so this is risky for me to put him on the roster. But if he comes to training camp in shape and motivated, he could carve out a role as a rotational run-stuffing DT with big upside.

Verdict: Stays