The danger in football mercenaries – NBC Sports Philadelphia

There are certain words and catch phrases Nick Sirianni uses constantly. Core values. Connecting. Culture.  

These are concepts that genuinely mean a lot to him. They form the basis of his coaching philosophy, that the closer players are to each other and their coaches, the harder they’ll play for each other.

Just a few weeks after Sirianni was hired here, I asked him about connecting, why it’s important to him.

“When you really know somebody and you connect with someone, you’re going to go a little bit harder for them,” he said back in the spring of 2021. “And you always get guys who say, ‘I already go as hard as I possibly can. I go 100 percent every day,’ and that’s probably true most of the time, but there’s still something more there and something extra that you’ll give when you care for somebody. 

“Guys who know each other and like each other and respect each other, you don’t want to let your teammates down.”

And I think there’s something to that. I really do.

You still need good players. You still need good coaches. And it doesn’t hurt to have an easy schedule. But the notion that players who have a powerful personal bond among each other will fight just a little bit harder during tough times is real.  

Another reason it’s critical to draft well. When your roster is packed with homegrown talent, you get this dynamic where guys have come in together, learned about their team’s culture from Day 1 of OTAs and haven’t been exposed to any other way of doing things. 

Kelee Ringo was telling me the other day how close he, Sydney Brown and Eli Ricks are. Three rookie defensive backs, all going through the same things together at the same time. All figuring out the NFL way of life, how to handle their finances, who to trust and who not to trust, and so on.

There’s so much value to that. Those guys are born and raised Philadelphia Eagles. The team that believed in them enough to draft them or sign them.

The bonds between Jason Kelce and Lane Johnson and the bonds between Fletcher Cox and Brandon Graham are unbreakable and will last long after their football days are over.

And ask yourself why guys like Clyde, Seth, E.A. and Keith Byars are all still so close. Why Trott, Dawk, Troy and Ike are all still best friends.

But there is a flip side to all this.

The guys who haven’t grown up here. Who haven’t built those connections. Who’ve spent most of their career elsewhere and don’t have those strong ties to the organization that the home-grown players have.

Every team has free agents and some of the best Eagles in history have been guys who’ve come from other teams – Asante Samuel, Malcolm Jenkins, Troy Vincent, Jon Runyan, Brandon Brooks. But those are guys who were here long enough to buy in. To become part of the fabric of the team.

What can be risky is bringing in too many older veterans who really have no sense of what it means to be a Philadelphia Eagle, who haven’t grown up in the NovaCare Complex, who are outsiders stopping off here long enough to finish out a season and pocket a few more weekly checks before figuring out their next team.

And when I see how the Eagles are falling apart right now, losing to inferior teams, blowing double-digit leads, scrambling to win games in the final minutes, I can’t help wonder if that’s part of the problem.

There are so many guys who weren’t here for OTAs or the offseason programs or training camp, guys who never had the chance to assimilate into the culture that helped the Eagles get to a Super Bowl a year ago. They got here and went out and played a few days later.

And this isn’t a knock on the players themselves. Older veteran midseason defensive acquisitions like Kevin Byard, Bradley Roby, Shaq Leonard and Zach Cunningham – and you can throw Julio Jones in there as well – aren’t bad guys. They’re not bad locker room influences. Cunningham has actually been the Eagles’ best linebacker this year, and Jones has three touchdowns. 

It’s more a statement on roster construction and the importance of developing young players who want to hang out with each other after practice, go bowling together, build relationships that will last a lifetime.

There are actually 30 players on the 53-man roster or practice squad who were drafted by other teams. And guys just passing through the building as a stopping point from one team to another aren’t going to have the same bond as guys who’ve grown up here and built those connections over time. 

If you’re playing football for the Eagles and you weren’t here a few months ago and you won’t be here a few months from now how can it mean as much as to guys who’ve spent their whole lives here? And with each outside guy you bring in, your locker room can drift just a little farther away from the culture you've been working so hard to instill.

Now, because of injuries and disappointing play, GMs sometimes have no choice but to bring in mercenaries. But the difference in the NFL between winning and losing is tiny, and when things get tough, when adversity hits – and it’s hit big-time around here lately – you want as many people as possible with 100 percent buy-in on your side. 

Guys who love being Philadelphia Eagles. Not guys just stopping by for a few games.

And what happens when you don’t have that? What happens when there are cracks in that painstakingly built culture? Just look at the last six weeks for your answer.

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