Eagles sign cornerback with Sean Desai connection to practice squad

The Philadelphia Eagles officially made some practice squad changes over the past two days. Here’s an overview:

• CB Kindle Vildor and CB Mario Goodrich were signed to the practice squad.
• LB Brandon Smith was released from the practice squad.

Let’s sort through this news on a player-by-player basis.

KINDLE VILDOR

Vildor, 25, was originally a fifth-round pick (No. 163 overall) by the Chicago Bears in the 2020 NFL Draft. He logged 22 starts in 44 games played over three seasons. Vildor overlapped with former Bears assistant coach and current Eagles defensive coordinator Sean Desai for two years.

Vildor was claimed by the Tennessee Titans after being waived by the Bears in late August. He played two games with the Titans before getting waived again last week.

Vildor has a track record of struggling in coverage. According to Pro Football Reference, he allowed a 131.2 passer rating when targeted as a rookie in 2020. It was then 136.1 in 2021 and 110.1 in 2022. Not great.

Vildor has mostly played at outside cornerback during his NFL career with a small percentage of his snaps coming in the slot. He does have some safety experience dating back to high school, so perhaps the Eagles believe he’s versatile.

The Eagles have not been shy about signing corners to their roster and practice squad while dealing with injuries at that position ... and specifically at nickel CB. Kinda seems like they’re trying to throw options at the wall until something sticks.

MARIO GOODRICH

The Eagles’ handling of Goodrich this season has been a bit strange. He began the year as a healthy scratch. He was forced into action as the backup nickel corner once Avonte Maddox got hurt. But the Eagles didn’t seem to like how he struggled in that capacity, making him a healthy scratch again while moving James Bradberry to the slot. And then only to move Bradberry back outside and give Goodrich some rotational playing time at nickel CB. The Eagles ultimately waived Goodrich earlier this week to make room for signing Josiah Scott from the Pittsburgh Steelers’ practice squad. The Eagles brought Goodrich back on the practice squad to have a “break glass in case of all other options being unavailable” guy, I guess.

BRANDON SMITH

The Eagles originally signed Smith to their practice squad last week. The Penn State linebacker is now gone with the team desiring more corner depth. Smith became more expendable with Nakobe Dean getting healthy.

UPDATED EAGLES PRACTICE SQUAD

Number of utilized practice squad elevations (three maximum limit) listed in parentheses.

WR Devon Allen (2)

DB Tristin McCollum (1)

CB Mekhi Garner (1)

WR Julio Jones

CB Kindle Vildor

CB Mario Goodrich

CB Tiawan Mullen

LB Ben VanSumeren

DE Tarron Jackson

DT Thomas Booker

OL Julian Good-Jones

OT Le’Raven Clark

T/G Brett Toth

RB Lew Nichols

WR Joseph Ngata

WR Greg Ward