The Eagles won’t be “putting it on the board” in free agency this year.  Free agent TJ Houshmandzadeh has reportedly reached a deal with the Seattle Seahawks according to multiple internet reports.  Housh ended up not even being on the Eagles radar after his agent played games with the FO last week by lying to them about how much money they were seeking.

With Housh off the board, the Eagles have fairly limited options at wide receiver via free agency this year.  The only wide receiver left that could be cosidered an upgrade is Laveranues Coles, but so far the Eagles haven’t shown any interest in the former Jets #1 wide receiver.  Most NFL experts have mentioned that the Dolphins lack of interest in Coles (because of his ties to the Tuna) is hurtng Coles value and reduced his market.  So far only the Bills have made an offer to Coles.

Coles recorded just 850 yards receiving last year, but reached the end zone 7 times.  Considering the Eagles lack of production in the red zone last season, adding a receiver that can get open and score near the goal line would be a welcomed addition.

If only we had the cap space…

TJ Houshmandzadeh was ESPN just moments ago and listed the Eagles among the teams he is interested in signing with.  He also listed the Giants, Vikings, and Seahawks.  He sounded pretty excited about the idea of playing in Minnesota with Adrian Peterson, but its good to see that he lists the Eagles as a team he is interested in.

I posted earlier that the Bengals official website quoted him as saying that he wants to be signed somewhere by Saturday night so let’s hope we we hear something Friday morning about Housh setting up a visit.  If he is saying that he wants to be signed by Saturday, a visit will be just a formality since he won’t have time for multiple visits.

Free agency started about 30 minutes ago, but the rumors are already flying.

The Eagles are rumored to be interested in OG Jason Brown, but if they are, their interest will have to wait a little because Brown will be visiting with the St. Louis Rams on Friday according to ProFootballTalk.

Free agent center/guard Jason Brown will kick off his free-agent tour on Friday with a visit with the St. Louis Rams.

Brown — considered by some to be the best lineman on the market — is likely to command a big, multiyear deal.

Another offensive lineman being linked to the Eagles is Stacy Andrews - the brother of Eagles OG Shawn Andrews.  I’d love to see the Eagles sign Andrews and reunite him with Shawn.

Last week, Lewis sure sounded like the Bengals thought they were close to a deal. Then nothing. Not usually a good sign, and the speculation has always been that a reunion was sought on the Philadelphia offensive line with brother Shawn Andrews or that the Jets have coveted him since they hosted him for a visit in restricted free agency.

Speaking of Bengals free agents, Carson Palmer is working on getting TJ Houshmandzadeh to resign with Cinci.

Quarterback Carson Palmer has turned into Tom Daschale without the limos and is lobbying Houshmandzadeh hard. He called Houshmandzadeh on Thursday while he was working out.

“He just said, ‘Don’t forget us,’ and I told him the same thing I’m telling you,” Houshmandzadeh said Thursday night. “If they’re fair, we’ll make history. If not, we can still hang out and be friends.”

More importantly, the same report on the Bengals website says that Housh wants to be signed somewhere by Saturday night so we should know fairly soon whether or not the Birds are legit players for his services.

Let's sign Housh... We've GREAT luck with WR's wearing #84

With the Donovan McNabb “I want to retire and Eagle, but I am going to say whatever I can to alienate all of my teammates” Tour in full affect yesterday’s interview of TJ Houshmanzadeh on ESPN 950 AM (full audio) isn’t getting as much press as I’d expect.  Housh created a little buzz though by saying he would be interested in the Eagles should he become a free agent on February 27th (Cinci can still slap the franchise tag on him).

Sheil Kapadia from the Moving the Chains blog over on Philly.com pulled out this pretty interesting quote from the interview.

“Did you watch the Eagles and the Bengals game during the season? I was just giving Andy Reid, I was giving him an interview in person,” Houshmandzadeh said. “That’s all I was doing. I was giving him a three-month interview ahead of time. That’s all.”

Housh would be a major, major pickup for the Eagles.  A wide receiving corps of Housh, Kevin Curtis, DeSean Jackson, and my boy Jason Avant would be pretty nasty.  Throw into the mix Brent Celek and our redzone problems are gone.  Completely.  How would a defense defend a 4 wide receiver set with those 4 receivers and a Brian Westbrook in the backfield?

A signing such as Housh would totally rejuvenate the fan base after the lingering hangover from the NFC Championship game that will only continue to linger if the FO doesn’t make some sort of bold move either through free agency or the draft or, and here’s a novel idea,  BOTH free agency and the the draft.  It would also show the fans that the FO truly cares about winning a championship and not just selling out the Linc and selling jerseys.

From a football standpoint, signing Housh would put the Eagles into the mix among the elite teams in the league talent wise.  The Eagles are not generally seen as one of the elite teams talent wise in the league, and if we are being honest with ourselves, we probably aren’t.  We are probably right on the cusp of being in that conversation though.  Sign an elite wide receiver like Housh though and the Eagles are one of the favorites to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl next year.

There are definitely other needs for this team, but some can be addressed via the draft much easier than wide receiver and none would build excitement amongst the fan base like bringing in a wide receiver of Housh’s caliber would.

The problem here, of course, is that the FO has not shown a willingness to bring in a big name, big talent wide receiver since the Terrell Owens fiasco.  One thing that might help here is that Housh is not near the primadonna that Owens is so that shouldn’t scare off the FO from making such a move. Still, like I said the other day, the FO will likely not want to spend the type of money it would take to bring in Housh.  Instead, get ready to buy those #85 Bryant Johnson jerseys.