The Philadelphia Eagles waived tight end Alex Ellis on Friday to make room for G (weird to type that) Jason Peters. The team announced the move on Twitter:
This official move presumably means that Jason Peters passed his physical and signed his contract, so the team needed a roster spot. Alex Ellis is the odd man out.
Ellis is a bit of an interesting choice considering the Eagles roster is currently at 90 players and Ellis was on the active roster to start the season last year. He appeared in three games before getting hurt and ending the season on injured reserve after clearing waivers.
With so many players currently on the roster, it seems odd to cut a player who actually played in games for the team last season. It sounds like Mike Kaye of NJ.com has one theory:
Togiai was an undrafted free agent signing this year, and he signed RIGHT after the draft ended. We wrote this about Noah Togiai back in April when taking an early look at the Eagles’ undrafted free agent signings:
News of tight end Noah Togiai’s signing came out minutes after the draft ended. He is clearly someone the team was aggressive in targeting and had an agreement with before the draft completed. He reportedly got $100,000 guaranteed from the Eagles.
And here is what I wrote during our first look at the Eagles 90-man roster:
Noah Togiai has a chance to earn the third tight end job, while fellow undrafted rookie Mike Warren could earn the fourth running back job.
Keep making me look smart, Eagles.
At tight end, the Eagles have one of the league’s best duos in Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert. Aside from Eagles fans arguing about whether the team should trade Ertz or can afford to extend both Ertz and Goedert, it’s hard to find a better tandem than those two. After those two, though, it’s slim pickings.
What Now at Tight End?
Now that Ellis has been waived, the only other two tight ends on the roster are Togiai and Joshua Perkins. Fans are familiar with Perkins since he essentially became WR1 at one point last year due to injuries, playing tight end, in the slot, and even split out wide a few times.
He is who he is though, and the upside is limited there. He isn’t much of a blocker and is a very OK receiving tight end. You could do worse than Perkins as your TE3, but you could also do a lot better.
Could Noah Togiai be the guy? I’m happy I asked because I had Togiai as one of my sleepers to make the 53-man roster back in my way-too-early roster prediction all the way back in May:
Now, releasing Alex Ellis is a very minor move, and a lot will change between now and final roster cuts (if we ever get there). Togiai is, after all, an undrafted free agent and not at all a lock to make the team.
But the Eagles DID give him a $100,000 signing bonus, which isn’t exactly zero dollars. Here’s a Noah Togiai highlight video for your enjoyment. It’s pretty vanilla, but he’s more of an every-down back than Perkins:
I guess now I’ll have to do a Noah Togiai undrafted player profile as I did for Michael Warren and Grayland Arnold.
