Former Detroit Lions defensive tackle Haloti Ngata is planning on signing with the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Ngata will add to an already stellar Eagles defensive line that has already been improved this off-season, as Michael Bennett was acquired via trade last Wednesday. Ngata and Bennett will join a group that already featured Fletcher Cox, Tim Jernigan, Chris Long, and Destiny Vaeao.
So essentially, the Eagles were the perfect fit for the 34-year-old Ngata. They are already so deep on that defensive line that his role could potentially be limited, and if his play starts to severely decline, the Eagles will just turn to someone else who will be able to step up and take over the snaps instead.
Detroit and Ngata were together for three years after the team acquired him via trade in 2015 with the Baltimore Ravens to help fill the void left by Ndamukong Suh leaving for Miami. Ngata was a critical component to the Lions’ run defense, and served as a mentor to A’Shawn Robinson and Akeem Spence during his tenure. Unfortunately for Ngata, his 2017 season was cut short by a biceps injury that forced him to go on injured reserve in after the team’s Week 5 match-up versus the Carolina Panthers.
Philadelphia will be Ngata’s third different NFL team, and could very well be his last. While Ngata had every intention of playing in 2018, he is already thinking about his long-term future, as he said to 97.1 FM in Detroit back in January. He also had his body examined back in 2017 to make sure everything was going good with him medically:
“I don’t want to have problems when I’m older. I want to be able to raise my kids and be able to play with them when they are older and still be able to beat them in wrestling matches and stuff when they are teenagers,” Ngata said in 2017.
Ngata’s other NFL team was the Baltimore Ravens, where he spent the first nine seasons of his career after he was drafted 12th overall in 2006. In Baltimore, Ngata was named to the Pro Bowl five times, and was a First-team All-Pro in back-to-back years in 2010 and 2011.
For his career, Ngata has 498 tackles, 37 pass deflections, 34 stuffs, and 31.5 sacks. He was ranked 39th out of 50 on The Game Day Report’s top 50 NFL free agents of 2018.
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