Is Edwards really an upgrade at left defensive end?


Bob Grotz of the Delaware County Times expects the Eagles to make a push for Minnesota Vikings' defensive end Ray Edwards, a restricted free agent with a first-round tender, but is Edwards really a guy the Eagles should be attempting to acquire?

He set a career mark for sacks this past season with 8.5, but that's while playing next to Jared Allen and the Williams Wall. The real attention put on Edwards has been because of his three-sack performance against the Dallas Cowboys in the Divisional round of the 2009 playoffs.

While it was impressive, it's important that teams keep things in perspective. Playing on such a great line gives him a lot of opportunities for one-on-one matchups and he wasn't even able to hit double-digit sacks.

He's got great size (6'5, 270) and would benefit from having Trent Cole on the other side, but Edwards' lack of production in the regular season is cause for concern. To me, it says he either lacks the talent or the work ethic necessary to become a great player.

A guy like Edwards always takes me back to what Brian Dawkins once said about Clinton Hart; When a guy only shows flashes of talent, it just means he's not working hard enough.

It's a statement so simplistic and obvious in nature that it's genius. Showing flashes clearly means that the talent is there, but the player isn't putting in the time and effort it would take to bring everything together consistently.

That is Edwards in a nutshell, and I think it's going to cause a lot of teams to shy away from him. He's very good for what the Vikings have right now because he has shown that he can produce when called upon, but a lot of his success directly correlates to the presence of the three great players next to him.

And for those who think he would be better than what the Eagles already have in Juqua Parker, consider that Edwards had 8.5 sacks to Parker's eight. Is an extra half of a sack really worth a draft pick and about $4-6 million per season?