Eagles Release Linebacker Zach Brown

Eagles Release Linebacker Zach Brown

When your mouth is bigger than your play, bad things happen.

Tough isn’t a strong enough word to describe Zach Brown’s week so far. First, he called out his former teammate Kirk Cousins, calling him “the weakest part of [Minnesota’s] offense”. He stated that it’s better for the defense when Cousins is passing the ball, maybe not the smartest thing to say when you have a defensive backfield as porous as Philadelphia’s behind you. Not to mention, Cousins also has Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen at his disposal. After handing him some newfound motivation (even though Cousins claims he didn’t hear about what Brown said), Captain Kirk carved up the Eagles defense to the tune of 333 yards and four scores, completing ¾ of his passes in the process. Diggs collected 167 of those yards on his own to go along with three touchdowns. 

The Vikings took to Twitter with a massive troll of Brown following the game, continuing his terrible week. And if that wasn’t bad enough, he was released the very next day. Philadelphia wasn’t having him run his mouth when he really wasn’t contributing anything to the team. He was signed in May to a contract that looked like an absolute steal at the time (he was PFF’s third-highest graded linebacker in 2018), but $3 million for six games isn’t exactly ideal. The weirdest part about the timing of his release was that starting middle linebacker Nigel Bradham suffered an injury on Sunday. Was Philadelphia really so fed up with Brown that they would rather turn to a less-than-exciting depth chart instead of keeping him around? With Brown’s release, both of the LBs the Eagles signed in free agency (L.J. Fort) are no longer on the roster. Not a good sign for Howie Roseman and the rest of the front office. 

Brown will now look for his fifth NFL team after spending time with the Tennessee Titans, Buffalo Bills, Washington Redskins, and Philadelphia Eagles. In just under 7.5 seasons, he’s tallied 661 tackles and 17.5 sacks. Even if his time with the Eagles was unceremonious, he should have no shortage of suitors on the open market.

Kamu Grugier-Hill, Nigel Bradham, Nathan Gerry, Duke Riley, and T.J. Edwards are the five remaining linebackers on the Eagles roster. With the defensive backfield already in shambles and the defensive line returning to early-season form, Jim Schwartz’s group is giving us nothing to be excited about.

-By: Micah Jimoh