Darryl Tapp will compete with Parker to start at LDE.
On Tuesday evening, the Eagles pulled a trade for a defensive end and, they feel, addressed their most pressing need when they sent Chris Clemons and a fourth-round pick to the Seattle Seahawks for Darryl Tapp.
A fourth-round pick and Clemons? I don't say this very often, but the Eagles got royally fleeced on this deal. The only thing that might save it is that Tapp is three years younger than Clemons and has the ability to be a three-down defensive end whereas Clemons was a situational pass-rusher.
However, even as a situational guy, Clemons was able to rack up three sacks compared to Tapp's less-than-impressive two and a half. Not only that, but even a straight-up fourth-round pick might have been a bit steep for a guy who has never lived up to expectations.
He was a second-round pick back in 2006, but since then has never had more than seven sacks and has only started an entire season only once.
In fact, since 2007, he's only been getting worse. He started all 16 games in '07 and racked up seven sacks, only started 11 games in '08 with five and half sacks, and most recently only started five games with a paltry two and half sacks.
Isn't a young guy supposed to get better as the years go on, and not worse?
Usually, I'm willing to give the Eagles the benefit of the doubt. Andy Reid has shown over and over that he simply knows more than the rest of us, but he must really have some insider information to give up so much for Tapp.
The talk is that he should compete with Juqua Parker to start across from Trent Cole, but at this point, barring some sort of coming out party Tapp is not even good enough to be in the conversation.
And not only that, but Tapp is a restricted free agent. That means the Eagles are going to have to work out an extension right away and, since they overpaid to acquire him, will probably wind up overpaying to keep him.
I wanted the Eagles to make a move at defensive end as much as the next guy, but I truly hope they don't believe Tapp fixes the problem and still target one in the first or second round.
Because if they don't, it's going to be another long season for the defense.
UPDATE: Tapp has confirmed that he has signed a contract extension. Details of the deal are not yet available.
