A look at 10 critical in-season Eagles acquisitions over the years
A look at 10 critical in-season Eagles acquisitions over the years originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
There’s been a lot of focus lately on Jake Elliott, who’s off to a historic start this year kicking long-range field goals and made the 2nd-longest overtime field goal in NFL history Sunday.
Dave Zangaro wrote this week about the strange set of circumstances that landed Elliott in Philly early in the 2017 season and it got us thinking about the best in- season acquisitions in Eagles history.
So we made a list, and the only rule is that the player was never with the Eagles at any point previously. So practice-squad call-ups who were with the team in training camp are ineligible. Seth Joyner is an incredible story because he was released after his rookie training camp in 1986 and was back home in Spring Valley, N.Y., ready to return to UTEP to finish school, only to rejoin the Eagles for Week 3 and go on to have a remarkable career. Incredible story but he’s ineligible because he was in training camp at West Chester that summer.
A guy like Bradley Roby? He joined the Eagles this past week for the first time and is expected to play Sunday against the Rams. He would be eligible for future versions of this list.
With all that in mind, here’s an alphabetical list of 10 notable in-season Eagles acquisitions over the years. Some remained with the Eagles for a while, some not for long. But all made an impact after joining the Eagles at some point later than Week 1.
Jay Ajayi (acquired Oct. 31, 2017, in a trade with the Dolphins in exchange for a 4th-round pick in 2018): The Eagles were 7-1 eight weeks into the 2017 season, and they were 6th in the NFL with 172 rushing yards per game. It wasn’t enough for Howie Roseman, who made a deal at the trade deadline to acquire Jay Ajayi from the Dolphins. Ajayi was known to have serious knee issues., but he had rushed for nearly 1,300 yards with eight TDs and a 4.9 average a year earlier and he was only 24. On his fifth carry as an Eagle, he ran 46 yards for a touchdown against the Broncos, and he finished the regular season with 408 rushing yards and a 5.8 average in seven games with the Eagles. Then, sharing time with LeGarrette Blount and Corey Clement, he put together a tremendous postseason, with 184 yards – only Wilbert Montgomery, Steve Van Buren and Brian Westbrook have had more for the Eagles in a single postseason – and he was 9-for-57 in Super Bowl LII, when the Eagles’ backs combined for 255 scrimmage yards and the Eagles toppled the Patriots 41-33. Ajayi only played in seven more games the rest of his career, but his addition in 2017 really gave the Eagles an extra dimension on offense.
Colt Anderson (Nov. 10, 2010, signed off Vikings’ practice squad): The Eagles were making their annual playoff run, but they needed help on special teams, and they found it on the Vikings’ practice squad. Anderson, who had been released by the Colts after training camp, quickly emerged as one of the Eagles’ special teams leaders for 3 ½ years and also started six games at safety before spending two years with the Colts and two more with the Bills in an eight-year career as an undrafted player out of Montana, where he’d been a walk-on. Anderson is now an assistant special teams coach with the Bengals.
Jon Dorenbos (signed Nov. 29, 2006): Mike Bartrum had been the Eagles’ long snapper and emergency tight end (14 catches in seren years) since 2000, but in a game against the Colts in November of 2006 at the RCA Dome he suffered a career-ending neck injury. Dorenbos had played 29 games with the Bills in 2003 and 2004 but was released after 2005 training camp. The Titans signed him and he long snapped in nine games in 2005 and one in 2006 but was released on Oct. 25. He was out of football for a month honing his hobby as a magician when the Eagles gave him a workout and quickly signed him to replace Bartrum. Over the next decade, Dorenbos blossomed into a two-time Pro Bowler and a popular magician. He ranks 10th in Eagles history with 162 games played. Dorenbos placed 3rd in the 2016 season of America’s Got Talent and is now a motivational speaker and a professional magician.
Linval Joseph / Ndamukong Suh (signed Nov. 16 and Nov. 17, 2022): With Jordan Davis expected to miss multiple weeks with an ankle injury, the Eagles needed to add a defensive tackle. Joseph and Suh are listed as a ticket because they both joined the Eagles in the span of just a few hours. Joseph and Sue had played a combined 383 games and made a combined seven Pro Bowls when they joined the Eagles. They were both at the end of their careers and both had been out of football all year, but both helped solidify a defense that wound up ranked No. 2 in the NFL and helped the Eagles reach the Super Bowl. Suh averaged 24 snaps per game and Joseph 22 for a defense that recorded the 3rd-most sacks in history, and both added a tremendous amount of leadership and experience to an already stacked defensive line.
Rick Lovato (signed Dec. 13, 2016): We won’t include Jake Elliott in this story since Dave Zangaro covered his journey to Philly in such great detail, but his long snapper arrived in similar fashion. It was late in the 2016 season, and Jon Dorenbos had been the Eagles’ long snapper – and a two-time Pro Bowler – since the middle of 2006. But he suffered a broken wrist in a game against Washington and that wound up as the last game of his career and he went on to bigger things as a world-class magician and entertainer. Rick Lovato, a Central Jersey native, had snapped in two games with the Packers in 2015 and two games with Washington early in 2016 and the Eagles signed him, and he’s played in 115 consecutive games since and made the Pro Bowl in 2019. Lovato is one of only seven guys left from the 2017 Super Bowl season and he’s ably continued the Eagles’ Pro Bowl long snapper lineage of Mike Bartrum and Dorenbos, one of whom has snapped for the Eagles every game for 24 years.
Roger Ruzek (signed Nov. 23, 1989): The Eagles’ kicking problems had reached absurd levels in 1989. Luis Zendejas began the season with the Eagles but after he had misses from 33, 33, 40, 41, 41 and 45 yards, he was released and replaced by Steve DeLine, who made just three of seven attempts in three games with misses from 32, 45, 46 and 48 yards before getting released and replaced by Roger Ruzek, who had lost his job with the Cowboys to … Luis Zendejas. Ruzek made 8 of 11 kicks the rest of 1989, which wasn’t awful for back then, and in 1990 and 1991 he went 49-for-62 for 79 percent back when 79 percent was pretty good. That made him the 5th-most accurate kicker in the NFL during that two-year span, and his 85 percent accuracy in 1991 was a franchise record until Gary Anderson connected on 86 percent in 1996. Ruzek remained with the Eagles through 1993, and he still ranks 11th in franchise history with 382 points.
Boston Scott (Dec. 11, 2018, signed off Saints’ practice squad): It took a little bit for this move to pay off. The Saints had drafted Scott in the sixth round in 2018 but released him and placed him on the practice squad. Scott played in the last two games of the season and got 14 snaps – all on special teams. But he became a part of the running back rotation in 2019 and has remained there ever since, generally coming up big whenever he gets an opportunity. Scott has a 4.4 career rushing average with nearly 1,400 yards and 73 catches for 554 more yards and 20 total touchdowns. He’s one of only 19 running backs in NFL history with 20 or more TDs on fewer than 400 touches. Over the last five years, the only Eagles with more TDs than Scott are Jalen Hurts (34) and Miles Sanders (25).
Golden Tate (acquired Oct. 30, 2018, in a trade with the Lions in exchange for a 3rd-round pick in 2018): A year after acquiring Ajayi at the trade deadline, Howie went back to work and acquired Golden Tate in exchange for a 3rd-round pick from the Lions. Although Tate’s overall stay here wasn’t notable – the three-time 1,000-yard receiver had 30 catches for just 278 yards and one TD in eight regular-season games – he made one of the most improbable catches in Eagles playoff history in the 2018 wild-card game against the Bears at Soldier Field. With the Eagles trailing 15-10 with 61 seconds left and facing a 4th-and-goal on the 2-yard-line, Tate caught a two-yard pass from Nick Foles to give the Eagles a 16-15 lead. The two-point conversion attempt failed, and the Bears did get into field goal range – that was the Double Doink – but Tate’s catch remains the only go-ahead TD in a postseason game with a minute left on a fourth down in the NFL since 1994 (as far back as Stathead’s game play finder goes). The 2017 and 2018 postseasons remain the only time the Eagles have won playoff games in consecutive years since 2003 and 2004. Tate finished his career with two non-descript seasons with the Giants.
Chris Warren (Dec. 7, 2000, claimed on waivers from Cowboys) : Warren had been a terrific running back for the Seahawks in the mid-1990s, and from 1992 through 1997 he averaged over 1,100 yards per season, made three Pro Bowls and had more yards than any back in the NFL other than Hall of Famers Barry Sanders and Emmitt Smith. He backed up Smith for a couple years in Dallas but was released after dropping two passes, getting benched and yelling at his coaches during a 27-7 loss in Tampa. The Eagles had struggled to run the ball after Duce Staley suffered a lysfranc injury in Week 5 against the Falcons, so with the playoffs approaching they claimed Warren on waivers. He didn’t do much in his one regular-season game – 15-for-42 in the regular-season finale, a win over the Bengals. But in the playoff opener at the Vet against Tampa, he ran 22 times for 85 yards as the Eagles controlled the clock and beat Tampa 21-3 – their first playoff win since 1995. To this day, only Wilbert Montgomery and Steve Van Buren have had more rushing attempts in an Eagles playoff game. Warren ran six times for 11 yards a week later in the loss to the Giants and never played football again.
Will Witherspoon (Acquired Oct. 20, 2009, in a trade from the Rams for wide receiver Brandon Gibson and a 5th-round pick in 2010): The playoff-bound Eagles were on the lookout for linebacker help – aren’t they always? – and the 0-6 Rams were looking to shed veterans. The Eagles gave up a promising young receiver in Brandon Gibson - who caught 233 career passes, none for the Eagles - along with a late-round pick for Witherspoon, who made an immediate impact in his first game as an Eagle with an interception off Jason Campbell as well as a sack and forced fumble (recovered by Quintin Mikell) in Week 7 in a 27-17 win at FedEx Field. Witherspoon is the only Eagles linebacker since 2006 with a sack, interception and forced fumble in the same game. The Eagles went 8-3 with Witherspoon on the team before losing to the Cowboys in a wild-card game at AT&T Stadium.
