Tonight’s glance at the NFC East..
- The Eagles want to keep Jason Kelce for the long-term, writes Reuben Frank of CSNPhilly.com. A league source tells Frank the Eagles and the center’s agent, Jason Bernstein, haven’t started contract talks but plan to fairly soon. It would be surprising if by the start of training camp, Kelce doesn’t have a long-term multi-year deal worth about $4.5-$5MM per year.
- The Cowboys‘ top priority this offseason should be fixing their disappointing defense, opines Jean-Jacques Taylor of ESPNDallas.com. Their switch from the 3-4 defense to the 4-3 Tampa 2 scheme after the 2012 season wasn’t well thought out in Taylor’s view and the club doesn’t have the proper personnel for it. The Tampa 2 scheme requires a disruptive defensive tackle who plays on the outside shoulder of the right guard, a weakside linebacker who can make plays sideline to sideline, and a hard-hitting safety that can make receivers pay. Dallas, unfortunately, doesn’t have any of those by Taylor’s count.
- The Eagles signing of wide receiver Joe Anderson will have no bearing on what they do with free agents Jeremy Maclin and Riley Cooper, writes ESPN.com’s Phil Sheridan. Anderson was added for his special teams experience and his signing probably will have more of an impact on Brad Smith and Jeff Maehl than on Maclin and Cooper.
Kelce is such an important piece to this offense. They will lock him up and it wouldn’t surprise me to see him as a probowler next year with Mathis. (Peters was actually overrated this year; good, but not as good as Kelce and Mathis.)