When the Philadelphia Eagles signed Nnamdi Asomugha to a five-year/$60 million contract in July of 2011, there was a feeling that the team had acquired the best cornerback in the sport outside of Darrelle Revis.
However, Asomugha's new teammates quickly became skeptical of how the signing would pan out.
On the latest episode of "I AM ATHLETE," LeSean McCoy told the story of the first time that Asomugha matched up with a pass catcher in practice for the Eagles. That pass catcher was tight end Brent Celek, who apparently burned Asomugha, which wasn't lost on the locker room:
As McCoy noted, Celek had a very nice career with the Eagles, catching 398 passes for 4,998 yards and 31 touchdowns in 11 seasons all spent in Philadelphia. He was hardly a burner, though, and Asomugha getting burned by him in his first practice as an Eagle ended up being a precursor of things to come.
Former Eagles backup tight end Clay Harbor tweeted it was actually him who burned Asomugha, not Celek.
The guest on the episode was actually former Eagles cornerback Asante Samuel, who was teammates with Asomugha during the ill-fated 2011 season, which started with Super Bowl aspirations and ended with an 8-8 record. McCoy asked him what the first thing that comes to his mind is when he hears Asomugha's name.
"A lot of things really come to my mind," Samuel said. "The first thing is how the NFL can manipulate and control the narratives to make things seem like they're not. You can't make up no excuses for the level of play if it falls this low from one team to another. You see what I'm saying? You can't be this good over here, and then you come over here and now all of a sudden you ain't that good because of this, that, blah, blah, blah. Wherever I go, whatever defense, I'm going to succeed, you feel me? ... You ain't gotta make up no excuse for me. So [he was] a guy that was just overrated and they gave a lot of pub to, because of whatever. He's like a lot of other overrated people."
Asomugha was a two-time All-Pro during eight seasons playing for the then Oakland Raiders. So what happened when he came to Philadelphia?
It's possible -- and Samuel alluded to this on the podcast -- that in Oakland, the other players were so bad around Asomugha that if he played at an above-average level, teams had no reason to throw in his direction. That perhaps made a very good player seem as though he was one of the best defenders in the league. Certainly, he wasn't that once he came to Philadelphia.
This is not to make excuses for Asomugha, but the Eagles did have former offensive line coach Juan Castillo take over as defensive coordinator for the 2011 season, after Andy Reid and company had fired Sean McDermott from the same position. Perhaps no one outside of Jason Babin -- who racked up 18 sacks without doing a ton else in the wide-nine scheme of defensive line coach Jim Washburn -- was set up to succeed defensively in 2011 under Castillo.
Ultimately, Asomugha would spend only two seasons with the Eagles before being released. He played just three more NFL games after burning out with the Eagles. The husband of actress Kerry Washington, Asomugha has become an actor himself. Eating lunch alone in his car at the NovaCare Complex is now just a distant memory for Asomugha, who managed to make more than $71 million in his NFL career.
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