Free agency has been kicked off hard in Philly. And I think it’s time to celebrate.
It started as a rumor from a friend of the front office with a blog that people outside of Philly barely knew. Then it snowballed into bigger sites, and now it’s on SportingNews, with figures for the deal.
5 years and $47.2mil. The Eagles usually sign players for longer and then worry about cutting them later on in the deal. These numbers are so realistic, though, that it seems Samuel will be an Eagle until 2013.
Samuel is 27, and had 6 picks (one for a TD against the Eagles) in 2007, following his league leading 10 in 2006. The move is expected to free up Sheldon Brown to move to safety, thus strengthening two positions at once.
Expect this to be officially announced at the 4:30pm press conference. The news conference will likely be available via the Philadelphia Eagles’ website shortly thereafter.
For anyone who thinks he got short-changed in comparison to Clements consider two things:
1) Clements isn’t playing for a contender.
2) The 8th year of Clements deal is fake, making the real deal 7 years, $64mil. Which is a lower per-year average than Samuel’s.