The Philadelphia Eagles will be in the market for a starting cornerback over the offseason to play across from Quinyon Mitchell, but they’re being urged to avoid one particular player.
Alex Kay of Bleacher Report recently compiled a list of pending NFL free agents that teams should avoid in 2026, and cornerback Riq Woolen was included on the list.
Eagles urged to avoid Riq Woolen in free agency
Woolen made the Pro Bowl as a rookie in 2022, but he hasn’t made it again in the three seasons since. Given his seemingly declining play, Kay thinks that the Eagles, and other teams across the league’s landscape, should think twice before handing out a sizeable deal to the UTSA product.
“With Woolen's interception count and playing time dipping in recent years—he only had a single pick while playing a career-low 78 percent of defensive snaps and starting just seven of the 16 games he appeared in during the 2025 season—any team hoping to land a star-level cornerback on the open market should be leery,” Kay wrote.
“… Woolen is a strong option when it comes to playing man-to-man on the outside, but he has deficiencies in zone coverage—an issue that has forced him to the sidelines at times in Seattle's scheme—and is prone to making mistakes in coverage at critical times.”
The Eagles will have no shortage of other options when it comes to adding a cornerback over the offseason, so avoiding Woolen wouldn’t be especially difficult.
At the same time though, Woolen is still just 26 years old and has only played in Seattle. Perhaps a change of scenery and a new system could help to jumpstart his career. Someone will sign him, it's just a matter of who, and for how much.
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