The Eagles have signed linebacker Jatavis Brown to a one-year deal, according to an ESPN report.
Brown, 5-foot-11, 221 pounds and 26-years old, has spend the first four years of his career with the Los Angeles Charges. A fifth-round pick out of Akron, Brown has appeared in 56 games, starting 23 of them, totaling 265 tackles, 4.5 sacks, 12 pass deflections and 3 forced fumbles.
Finding quality free agent linebackers has been an issue for the Eagles over the last few years, with players like Zach Brown, Corey Nelson and others not making it past even the midpoint of the season.
Brown is almost certainly not being handed a starting job and is likely going to come in to compete for time at both middle linebacker and on the outside with TJ Edwards and Nate Gerry.
Here are three things to know about the newest Eagles linebacker:
1) Brown was an outside linebacker for the Chargers, but has experience on the inside and is a pretty decent athlete despite being slightly undersized. He has good speed for the position, turning in a 4.44 in the 40 coming out of college and putting up 33 reps on the bench press.
2) The best season of Brown's career came in 2018 when he started 10 games and finished with 97 tackles, one sack and four tackles for a loss. His playing time was cut considerably in 2019, however, as he went from 637 snaps in 2018 to just 92 snaps in 2019. He should be able to contribute on special teams right away, as he played 210 special team snaps last season for the Chargers.
3) Brown has not been that great in coverage throughout his career. Over the last two seasons teams have completed 60 of the 76 passes thrown his way for a total of 554 yards.
You can follow Eliot Shorr-Parks on Twitter at @EliotShorrParks or email him at esp@94wip.com!
