How the Eagles Landed on Hargrave

After swinging and missing on Byron Jones, the Eagles' defaulted to what they always do, building up front by making former Pittsburgh third-round pick Javon Hargrave the highest-paid nose tackle in the NFL.

Hargrave got three years and $39 million with $26M of that guaranteed from Philadelphia, per his agent Drew Rosenhaus, and arrives to bolster the interior of a defensive line which already features an All-Pro-player in Fletcher Cox and a highly-paid complement in Malik Jackson.

Jackson, however, is coming off a Lisfranc injury that cost him all but one game last season and it remains to be seen whether he can regain the explosiveness that made him one of the NFL's best interior pass rushers at the age of 30.

Meanwhile, Cox himself is 29 and has played a ton of football over three consecutive playoff runs in Philadelphia.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Conversely, Hargrave, 27, is coming off his rookie deal in Pittsburgh and is the type of long-range signing general manager Howie Roseman has stressed this offseason, harkening back to the pre-contender era when players like Brandon Brooks and Rodney McLeod were targeted.

That said, the Eagles made a lot of noise about wanting a real DT who could push the pocket inside on the pass rush last season and now they are shifting gears to a presumed rotation in which the fit would be Hargrave as the two-down run stuffer and Jackson as the nickel rusher next to Cox. It will be new defensive line coach Matt Burke's job to keep three highly-paid players happy but taking meaningful reps away from Cox and Jackson could be a positive if sold correctly.

Others will simply say Hargrave is more than just a run-stuffer after piling up 10.5 sacks over the past two seasons and can also point to the fact Jackson could kick outside at times.

To be fair to those thoughts, at 6-foot-5 Jackson looks like a defensive end and certainly has the length to move outside, something he has done at times in the past but he's also admitted to SI.com that it's not something he enjoys.

Finally, the asset allocation also doesn't make a lot of sense with three eight-figure players on the roster at defensive tackle when there are so many holes elsewhere.

The smart money says if the Eagles did land Jones, Hargrave wouldn't be in Philadelphia.

The good news, though is that when Philadelphia lost out to the Miami Dolphins on Jones, the organization went back to its DNA: loading up the lines with good football players.

If you're stumped and need a plan, filling up the roster with as many good players as possible and figuring out the rest from there isn't the worst path forward.

And it's one that led the Eagles to Hargrave.

John McMullen covers the Eagles for SI.com. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen