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Zach Berman, STAFF WRITER @zberm | zberman@phillynews.com


Chance Warmack considered other offers on the first day of free agency. Howie Roseman even said Warmack fielded better offers than the one-year, $1.51 million deal the Eagles presented the 25-year-old guard.

What other teams couldn't offer was offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland, who coached Warmack at Alabama.

"It influenced my decision very much," Warmack said Friday. "He's my guy. Helped me a lot in college, took me to the next level. Hoping to make that magic work here."


Warmack is just four years removed from being an all-American at Alabama. Stoutland, who has been with the Eagles the last four years, was the offensive line coach who helped developed Warmack into the No. 10 pick in the draft - a slot seldom spent on an interior offensive lineman. But Warmack was such a touted prospect that even the Eagles brass fielded questions about him at the 2013 scouting combine, when the Eagles held the No. 4 overall pick.

He started all 48 games he played during four seasons with the Tennessee Titans, but he did not live up to his predraft billing. The Titans declined his fifth-year option, which would have cost $11.9 million.

To reach that level again, he wanted a reunion with a Stoutland.

"I did [have other offers], but this was the best option," Warmack said. "I feel like Coach Stoutland is going to take me to the next level."

What's considered the "next level" remains to be seen. He'll need to find a way onto the field to show it, and it's unclear what role he'll play. The financial commitment does not suggest that he should be penned in as a starter like Brandon Brooks was one year ago, and he'll need to unseat players seemingly ahead of him on the depth chart to take snaps.




The interior of the Eagles line is suddenly more crowded than anticipated. Warmack joins Brooks, Allen Barbre, Jason Kelce, and Stefen Wisniewski as interior linemen with significant starting experience. Isaac Seumalo, the third-round pick last season, is a starting-quality player in the eyes of the coaches. In March, the Eagles view this as a good problem to have. Reserve offensive linemen are always needed. As of now, Roseman said, the Eagles plan to keep all of them.

At 6-foot-2 and 323 pounds, Warmack is different from some of the other offensive linemen. He's not a position-versatile player who can swing between tackle and guard or guard and center; Warmack is a guard, and fits the "road grader" description often given to players of his size. His combine results won't have him confused with a skill-position player, but he's strong, wide, and sturdy, and has talent for the Eagles to unearth.



"There's no doubt Chance is extremely talented, and he's another guy who wanted to be here, who had better offers on the table," Roseman said. "But he felt like for him, he wanted to play up to the ability that he had coming out of the draft, and there was no person better than the guy who coached him and made him the 10th pick in the draft."

That's why Stoutland is so important. Stoutland told the Eagles website that Warmack already knows the techniques Stoutland teaches, so the transition will just be scheme-related. But Stoutland predicted that the adjustment from the Titans to the Eagles will be easier than the adjustment from Alabama to Tennessee.

"You can't put one label on that," Warmack said of Stoutland. "He's a dynamic coach. He's going to pull everything out of you. He knows me. He knows the type of player I am. I feel like that relationship in itself is going to take me to the next level."

Warmack added that "there's a lot" he could do to develop as a player. He just needed to find the right situation, and he insisted that's Philadelphia. He's also healthy now after missing 14 games because of a torn tendon in his right middle finger than required surgery. Warmack pounded his fist to demonstrate how his finger has healed, and said he has been cleared to do anything - "grab, punch, all that."

Warmack said he doesn't feel pressure to live up to the predraft billing. But taking a one-year deal at a relatively modest salary compared with his average salary during his first four seasons gives Warmack a chance to prove himself again.

"I look at it like this: Everything happens for a reason," Warmack said. "If it wasn't for the injury, I wouldn't be here. So in terms of the deal, I'm not focused on that. I'm focused on being the best player I can be, and I feel like this is the best place . . . to try to accomplish that."
 

LAZARUS_LOGAN

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I remember that draft with both him and Cooper. The majority of us wanted Warmack. Cooper was drafted ahead of Warmack. Damn! Funny how both turned out to be such busts. Warmack and DiCastro (he's been serviceable for the Steelers)... and we ended up with two-time 1st team All-Pro Zach Martin.
 
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