Today, the Eagles released OLB/DE Alex Hall. The same Alex Hall that came as part of the package for Sheldon Brown and Chris Gocong earlier this offseason. So for those keeping score at home, the sum total of the return for both Brown & Gocong is a 4th and a 5th round draft pick.
Those picks, ironically ended up being on a corner, Trevard Lindley, and a DE/OLB hybrid type Ricky Sapp. Sapp and Gocong are probably a wash at this point, but Lindley has a long way to go before he can replace Sheldon Brown. Lindley was arguably the star of the teams OTAs this offseason, but then again being the star of OTAs doesn’t mean a whole lot… If he ends up being an above average starter for 6 years like Sheldon was, then he’ll have been a nice replacement.
Here’s Andy Reid’s statement on releasing Hall.
“Well, you obviously go through the roster and see the guys that you feel don’t quite fit in to what you are doing schematically. I think Alex Hall will be a very good outside linebacker in a 3-4 front. We worked him as a linebacker, and also worked him as a defensive end. After the evaluation we just felt like his best thing would probably be a 3-4, and I think Alex can definitely play in this league and be very successful, he’s just got to get into the right situation.”
When the trade actually went down we had speculated at BGN that Hall & Gocong were more or less throw ins that canceled each other out. Both were very athletic project type players that each team had given up on, but figured a change of scenery or system might do the trick for them.
Whether it was worth trading Sheldon Brown in the first place is up for debate, but when the trade went down we actually figured his worth to be right around a 4th rounder. So even with Hall’s release, the Eagles still got fair market value. Did they replace him adequately though? That remains to be seen.