Eagles beat writers weigh in on linebacker Eric Wilson joining the team’s weakest position

The Eagles might not be drafting Micah Parsons later this month, but they did add a linebacker earlier this week, signing former Viking Eric Wilson to a one-year, $3.25 million deal. The Inquirer’s Eagles beat writers — Les Bowen, EJ Smith, Jeff McLane, and Paul Domowitch — give their thoughts on the move.

Eric Wilson was a good linebacker on a bad defense last season. The Minnesota Vikings finished 29th in points allowed, 27th in yards allowed, 27th in rushing yards allowed, and 25th in passing yards allowed.

He started 15 games and played 1,034 snaps after spending three years as a part-time starter. Made the most of the opportunity and put up solid numbers that included 122 tackles, eight tackles for loss, three sacks, nine quarterback hits, and three interceptions.

The Eagles gave him only a one-year, $3.25 million deal, so they haven’t invested much in him. But the 26-year-old Wilson is motivated to play well, because he knows that a second solid season will get him a much better contract, either with the Eagles or someone else.

The Eagles know Wilson. Their new linebackers coach, Nick Rallis, spent the last three years as the Vikings’ assistant LB coach. He knows the kid’s strengths and weaknesses. Wilson is good in coverage and is an effective blitzer, but needs to improve as a run-stopper. His average tackle last season was more than 4 yards downfield.

Maybe 2020 draft picks Davion Taylor and/or Shaun Bradley emerge this season and maybe they don’t. Right now, the Eagles’ three starting linebackers in their base defense would be Wilson, Alex Singleton, and T.J. Edwards, with Wilson and Singleton playing in nickel. That’s not terrible.

Put this signing in the solid-but-unremarkable category. For $3.25 million, that’s OK.

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Signings this late into free agency always have to be taken with a modicum of salt. Not only that no other team would take a gamble on a 26-year-old starter, but that his own team opted not to bring him back at a relatively cost-effective price. But as we’ve seen before, and certainly during the Eagles’ 2017 offseason, free-agent diamonds can be found in April or May.

A closer look at the Vikings’ linebacker situation also puts their decision not to retain Wilson in perspective. They have two Pro Bowl-caliber starters in Eric Kendricks and Anthony Barr and both come at hefty prices. Wilson’s one-year, $3.5 million contract might not sound like much, but it’s considerable for a third linebacker who might not play a third of the snaps on defense.

The Eagles clearly envision Wilson as a possible starter. He played nearly every defensive snap last season, mostly because he took over for the injured Barr in Week 2. The former undrafted rookie played at both extremes. He made a number of highlight plays — three interceptions, three sacks, two fumble recoveries, one forced fumble, and eight tackles for loss -- but he also was responsible for a number of dubious moments and missed a total of 20 tackles. Only two other NFL linebackers missed more last season.

The 6-foot-1, 230-pound Wilson can get washed out of gaps in run defense. In the Vikings’ scheme, he played some strong-side linebacker in base packages and would start on the line about 10% of the time. He’s a solid pass rusher despite being undersized. That doesn’t mean he couldn’t drop and cover. But Minnesota, overall, struggled on defense and the Eagles may be attributing some of Wilson’s struggles to that fact, just as they likely did with safety Anthony Harris, whom they signed last month.

The Eagles needed linebackers. Alex Singleton returns and appears to be the front-runner to start alongside Wilson. T.J. Edwards will be in the mix. But Davion Taylor and Shaun Bradley, who contributed very little on defense in their rookie seasons, remain unknowns. And it would be a shock if the Eagles expended a high draft pick on the position even if Penn State’s Micah Parsons is sitting there at No. 12 in the first round.

Wilson fills a hole, but without knowing defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon’s scheme, I’ll reserve judgment on just how well he fills it.

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Eric Wilson is exactly the type of player the Eagles should be targeting as they transition into a rebuilding phase with seriously limited cap space. The 26-year-old Minnesota Vikings castoff is a young player with starting experience and has provided reason to believe there’s room for him to improve.

Wilson isn’t going to be Bobby Wagner Jr. but he will slot into the Eagles’ defense next year and should be their best linebacker by a decent margin right away. He’s got experience playing for new Eagles linebacker coach Nick Rallis and is at least somewhat familiar with defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, who was the defensive backs coach for the Vikings in 2017, Wilson’s rookie season.

Wilson comes to the Eagles billed as a three-down linebacker who has held up in coverage at his previous stop, although he’s had his struggles against the run. According to Pro Football Focus, Wilson’s coverage grade (65.5) ranked 27th among linebackers last season and his three interceptions tied for second among linebackers. He did miss 20 tackles last season, which is a problem that’s unlikely to go away. Again, we’re not talking about a Pro Bowler here, just a replacement-level starter.

Wilson has capably handled a steady increase in playing time in each of his first three seasons and would have likely commanded a more lucrative contract if it weren’t for the salary cap decreasing due to the pandemic.

We still don’t know everything about how Gannon values the linebacker position as a whole, but it’s safe to assume the organizational preference to fill the group with low-cost players didn’t leave with Jim Schwartz. If so, the Eagles will likely field a defense next season with Wilson and Singleton as the main two guys and T.J. Edwards, Davion Taylor, Shaun Bradley, and a potential rookie or two vying for the other spot. No matter what happens, it’s not a cast of world-beaters, but it will be an improvement from last year’s group, with Wilson likely taking the starting role vacated by San-Francisco-bound Nate Gerry.

This may not be the most splashy way to bolster the linebacking corps, but it’s a cheap and reasonably effective way to do so for a team with so many other barren position groups to address between now and the start of training camp.

If you want to look at it cynically, Eric Wilson is the kind of guy the Eagles should be familiar with, given the various injury crises that have pushed backups into the starting defense over the past several seasons. He’s undersized and undrafted, and he was mainly a special teams player from 2017 through 2019, until a Week 2 season-ending injury last year to a much better linebacker, Anthony Barr, thrust Wilson into the spotlight.

Once there, Wilson performed well by some metrics, most notably intercepting three passes and recovering two fumbles. He also was an effective blitzer, with three sacks, and he was solid in pass coverage. But Eagles fans who didn’t like seeing ball carriers steamroll Nate Gerry or Duke Riley aren’t going to be thrilled with Wilson, who was extremely ineffective against the run, at 6-foot-1, 230 pounds. Maybe he can get a little better there, with the right coaching.

So why is my thumb up? Well, while Wilson might struggle to move beyond a special-teams role with many NFL teams — which is why he was hanging around three weeks into free agency, and carried an extremely cheap one-year, $3.25 million price tag — the Eagles aren’t many NFL teams. Wilson almost has to be an upgrade on some of the guys they put out there at linebacker last season, particularly in pass coverage.

It’s really hard to knock a cheap free-agent signing at a position of need, when the player has decent NFL experience, is healthy, and doesn’t turn 27 until September. Do I expect great things from Wilson? No. But with Alex Singleton, T.J. Edwards, and Wilson, the Eagles ought to have a better, more experienced and athletic top trio than they fielded at the start of 2020. And they might be able to bolster the corps with a high 2021 draft pick.