PHILADELPHIA – The Eagles are in the middle of courting free agent linebacker Shaquille Leonard, hoping the three-time All-Pro who was released by the Indianapolis Colts would decide to play for the team for at least the rest of the regular season, hoping he joins their 19th-ranked defense and contribute, hoping to slow offenses down en route to a potential Super Bowl appearance.
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said he had spoken to Leonard several times in the last couple of days, something he used to do between 2018 and 2021 when the two were both with the Colts organization. Sirianni described his recruiting pitch to Leonard while he was in Philadelphia.
From a player’s perspective, free agency is a feeling-out period with a lot of fact-finding and reaching out to several players and other contacts around the league.
Cornerback Bradley Roby was in a similar position as Leonard, being that he was a free agent who had a chance to sign with a team in the middle of the season, allowing him to assess the different situations around the league and find the team that would be the best fit for him. Roby recalled what he was thinking while he was mulling his options.
“I just thought there was a need for my position and that I already knew like guys here,” Roby said. “I already had a teammate who came here and was successful the previous year. I was also in a position where I learned to win and not lose. For me, it wasn’t hard. It really has been perfect for me, honestly. This is exactly what I wanted.”
Roby said it all begins with having a good agent that garners the interest of front offices and coaching staffs across the league. Then, it is up to both sides to learn as much about each other as possible.
“You have to do your own due diligence, researching coaches, their history and schemes,” Roby said. “You have to be a pro about and see how you fit in and see how you would or would not fit in. Basically, it is the same as offseason free agency. Free agents are picking where they’re going. They get all the background info they can by calling your other teams, talking to them, and seeing what they think about you. They’ll probably hit up players that have played with you before. They are going to do their due diligence and ask around. They asked around about me too.”
As recently as this past offseason, cornerback James Bradberry was recruited as a free agent, stating he and the other players, such as cornerback Darius Slay and other defensive linemen, were encouraging him to return. As for the time that Bradberry was a free agent after the Giants released him in May 2022, Bradberry talked about what it was like for him to go through the process.
“You might see certain things on Twitter and other sites with people reaching out to you,” Bradberry said. “For the most part, as a player, you don’t know all the ins and outs of the personnel and the money and whatnot going on upstairs, so it’s hard. I had guys tweet me and stuff telling me to come, but not a lot.”
Bradberry has also been the one who has tried to talk players into coming to the Eagles, saying the Eagles making it to Super Bowl LVII is a significant selling point in trying to lure players, which may have been used to sway Leonard.
“I think that most of the time, your overall play as a team does a lot of speaking for it because for us last year, we played really well and made it to the Super Bowl, so that within itself was kind of an advertisement,” Bradberry said. “When you know you are going to a team that’s rebuilding, that’s an advertisement within itself, too. As a player, you just have to choose the money aspect, the team’s success, and the personnel and learn them once you get in them once you get in the building.”
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