The Eagles brought back one of their 15 pending unrestricted free agents Monday morning, signing defensive tackle Hassan Ridgeway to a one-year contract, a few hours before the noon start of the "legal tampering" period, in which teams are allowed to negotiate with potential free agents across the league.
The team also announced it was not placing a tender offer on running back Corey Clement, a restricted free agent who now will be free to sign elsewhere.
Teams can officially sign free agents starting Wednesday at 4 p.m.
Ridgeway, 25, played in seven games for the team last season, starting five, after Malik Jackson went down for the season in the opener. But Ridgeway ended up on IR as well, with an ankle injury. Defensive tackle became one of several injury-ravaged positions for a group that entered the season as a top NFC contender and finished 9-7, before a wild-card round loss to Seattle.
Ridgeway came to the Eagles last spring in a trade with Indianapolis, for a seventh-round pick. The Colts drafted him in the fourth round in 2016, out of Texas.
Clement, a South Jersey native, was a Super Bowl LII hero as an undrafted rookie out of Wisconsin. He became just the fourth rookie to amass 100 receiving yards in the title game, and his 22-yard touchdown catch was spectacular. But Clement failed to build on that momentum, and ended both the 2018 and 2019 seasons on injured reserve, with knee and shoulder injuries, respectively.
Like Ridgeway, Clement is 25. It's unclear what his free-agent market might be. It's possible he could return to the Eagles for less money than he stood to make if he had been tendered.
If Clement leaves, that would mean everyone involved in the "Philly Special" touchdown play just before halftime of the Super Bowl will have moved on _ Clement took the snap and flipped it to Trey Burton, who threw the TD pass to Nick Foles. Burton played for Chicago last season, Foles for Jacksonville.
Here are the Eagles' other pending unrestricted free agents:
DB: Rodney McLeod, Ronald Darby, Jalen Mills. OL: Jason Peters, Halapoulivaati Vaitai. LB: Kamu Grugier-Hill, Nigel Bradham. QB: Nate Sudfeld, Josh McCown. WR: Nelson Agholor. TE: Richard Rodgers. DL: Timmy Jernigan, Vinny Curry. RB: Jordan Howard.
Safety Malcolm Jenkins has said he will not play for the team this year if his contract isn't reworked.
