PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - BREAKING: Eagles sign CB Jonathan Jones | PHLY Eagles Podcast

Episode Date: March 13, 2026

Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean and Riq Woolen have a new position-mate in veteran CB Jonathan Jones, most notably of the Patriots where he worked with new secondary coach Mike Pellegrino. Howie Roseman, you dog! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello everybody and welcome to an emergency breaking podcast on the PHOI Network, free agency. Frenzy, we're live from the Xfinity Mobile studio. We're presented by Ashley. It's Bo Wolf, Fran Duffy, E.J. Smith left to right. And we've got some breaking news. The Eagles have added their third free agent of a not very busy week. Joining Rick Wullen and Johnny Munt, E.J. Smith is. Jonathan Jones, the veteran cornerback.

He spent last season with the Washington commanders. Before that, he was with the New England Patriots from 2016 to 2024, notably cross paths with Mike Pellegrino, the Eagles' new secondary coach. So there's some cohabitation matrix here. Yeah, you know, honestly, I joked before the show, this changes everything, changes the complete outlook of the 2025, 2026 NFL season, the whole season for the whole season for this. the record. How dare you. Uh, yes, thank you to Xfinity for, uh, presenting this emergency

podcast for us. Fran, what do you, what do you know about Jonathan Jones, who is? It should be said, 32 years old, uh, coming off a season in which he was injured for half of it with the Washington commanders. I would expect that this is for the veteran minimum or thereabouts. No guarantee. This would be, honestly, this was the aisle I expected them the shop in at the cornerback market. Like instead of the, the Tariq Wollen market, I expect, expected to be some swings like this. This is last year, or this is the 2026 version of the Adori Jackson signing. This is a player in Jonathan Jones who has had some really good stretches of football. He's played inside and outside for Bill Belichick over the course of his career.

The versatility is certainly something that I would think is going to be attractive to this coaching staff, the ability to line up both inside and outside. And it's not like, oh, yeah, like he's best on the inside. He's played a lot of time on the outside. And again, has had really good stretches of play. I was going through some of my notes from like the Eagles matchups against the Patriots and from the remember they played early in the 2023 season, the 22 season. So over the course of all 2022, the offenses had minus 15.6 EPA when targeting Jones. It was the fifth best amongst all outside corners like over the course of that entire season. So when you're looking at Jones, you know, this is a player that has got plenty of pelts on the wall. He's short,

but he's scrappy. He's instinctively. He's my kind of corner. to steal the EJ term. He's my kind of corner in terms of like the play style. He went undrafted for a reason. And that's, you know, like the traits aren't going to blow you away. But again, this is the guy that knows how to play the sport. He plays it well. I mean, it was a long time ago in 2016, but he did run fast back then.

He has those kinds of traits. I'm a little bit interested in just, I don't, I think it's probably unfair to even call it urgency at this point. Because, you know, this is Thursday of Free Agent Week and they're probably not giving him a ton of money. but the prioritization here, given that there are still holes at safety and tight end and edge, that they're just, it's, you know,

how we can multitask. He can do many things at once. But just in terms of, okay, you've already got the three guys who we know we're going to start at Corner. Now, you got Michael Carter and we'll get to him because I think he is an interesting factor here, E.J.

You've got Keely Ringo. You've got Mack McWilliams. There's no guarantee Jonathan Jones is even going to make this team. And I think leaning on Mike Pellegrine, Pellegrino to know that, you know, what kind of veteran presence he's going to give. But it is moderately interesting that they are doing this the first week of free agency. Yeah, to me, it seems like another dart throw at probably both the outside corner position and the slot corner position. And you alluded to it. I think it is a signal of what's to come

for Michael Carter, which I think he's going to get a lot of work at safety. And because of that, maybe you felt like you needed more of a veteran presence, especially at the backup nickel corner spot. You know, I think, you know, we shouldn't discount MacMac Williams as somebody who could factor in there as well. But if you wanted somebody, like, again, a veteran player that could compete for that spot in camp,

I think Jonathan Jones makes sense if you are going to move Michael Carter to safety, which to my understanding, like, that's really on the table right now. You know, there's a lot of things that can unfold between now and training camp. But I think that internally they view him as a potential safety convert. and somebody who could end up playing meaningful snaps for this team, you know, next to Andrew McCuba. Just to give the quick scattering report on Jonathan Jones in terms of what has been going on in his career.

You know, he spent all of that time in New England. Then last year, for the first time somewhere else in Washington, was on injured reserve the first half of the season, then came back and still played 12 games and played a lot, you know, almost 500 snaps in coverage. He has been on the field a whole lot, brings a lot of experience. I think given the makeup of that room at the moment, it's a reasonable old head to bring it.

Yeah, and honestly, and you talked about like, what's the urgency on the Eagles end of it? My read on it would be there was probably urgency on the players end, where he had options. He looks at this cornerback class, and while it's not particularly deep, it is a talented group,

his agent is going to be aware of that. So rather than all these teams that might have theoretical holes at corner, like let's make sure, we get in on a squad now. And I'm sure he had multiple suitors for this kind of a deal, right? One year, likely a minimum type of contract. And so he said, if the Eagles want me, like, I want to sign now. And he was able to get in.

Yeah. I mean, it wasn't the, go ahead, bud. No, no, you go first. I was going to say it wasn't the move we expected them to make tonight. But, I mean, I'm going to state the obvious here. Like the order of operations doesn't really matter by the time that we get to offseason workouts. You know, they're going to make moves at tight end, presumably at Eddresher as well.

They got moves left to make, but yeah, this seems like there was something that pushed this one a while. Do you think there's any chance with only one year left on his rookie deal that they trade Kili Ringo? I mean, what's his value right now? He's an ace special teamer for one year. Yeah, I don't know what that is. I think that's probably the reason to keep him. Probably. I think so, too.

I think he's more valuable to you as a really good special teams player for one year than whatever it is you would get in return, which is probably a pick swap. Yeah. I mean, you mentioned Mac McWilliams earlier, E.J. I think that this is a perfect player for him to, A, like, learn from and then also B, get pushed by, and then see, like, all right, what do you have in Mac Mac Williams? Did not mention Jacori and Bennett. I was just about to ask you about Jacorian Bennett.

That's true. Honestly, I absolutely forgot about Jacori and Bennett. Same question about Keely Ringo, but Jacori and Bennett. Maybe not a trade, but is this, you move, it's training camp competition for Jacorian Bennett. and maybe this is, you know, the beginning of the end for him. Well, your team's starting lineup may change, but the price of your internet will not. Check out the five-year price guarantee from our friends at Xfinity.

Okay, Johnny Jones, Johnny B. Jones, Johnny B. Jones. Are you, are you, you know, how he likes to talk about a lot about the mystery of free agency and wanting as much information as you can have? it is pretty interesting that they've only signed three guys and all of them have directly worked with members of the coaching staff in their career. It's very eagles, very eagles. We talked about it during the quackatology. Sorry, I almost said flu world order there.

Yeah, we talked about it during quagotology that the cohabitation matrix is real for this team. And I think it makes sense, you know, if you're going to be signing players that you're not familiar with, having somebody in the building that can vouch for them, you know, it's significant. all right friend you're ready you're ready to call this the stickiest secondary in the league i think i'm i don't think i would use those words personally uh but it's good i mean it's we know it's a good secondary um when you look at the corner spot uh i know there's some chatter in the chat uh from uh the the pittsburgh steeler signing to kwan brisker why would the eagles not get in on that number

five million five and a half yeah also i mean uh he is actually local to pittsburgh not uh not necessarily as a Western PA guy. So it's a more of a homecoming for him there out west. You know what we should do? Let's sign a guy who we beat in the Super Bowl just to remind people that we won in 2017. That'll be good. How did this bit, where did this come from?

I forget what it was reequal. right? It started before that. It started before that. Yeah. I mean, to me, the highlight of the free agency has been Highway Roseman. Highly. All right. Well, do you think we're going to be talking again before two o'clock tomorrow? I can't call it this time. Usually I'd say yes, but I don't know. I've been wrong before. Okay. Fran, you got any hopes or insights on Dallas Goddard? To me, my reading on the report about them extending his deadline, I would take that. If you are someone that wants Dallas Gotter back, I would take that as an optimistic occurrence, is them moving that deadline.

So, you know, if I'd lean, I'm going to be the one looking bad when it comes to flu world order. That's where my lean is right now. Okay. All right. Well, there you have it. The Eagles adding Jonathan Jones to a loaded secondary group. We will see what happens after that.

You've got Quinyan Mitchell, Cooper DeGine, Rieke Wollen, and now Jonathan Jones and his extensive experience in background with Mike Pellegrino. Eagles have a nice veteran to add to that room. We'll see how it all plays out for. E.J. Smith and Fran Duffy and Lindsay on the ones and twos. We thank you for watching. We'll talk to you tomorrow at 2 o'clock, if not before then, for another emergency podcast. And as always, we love you. Hit the like.