Report: Eagles, Austin Agree To One-Year Deal


Miles Austin. Photo courtesy of USA Today

Miles Austin. Photo courtesy of USA Today

The Eagles have signed wide receiver Miles Austin to a one-year deal worth $2.3 million, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.

Austin turns 31 in June. He appeared in 12 games with the Cleveland Browns last season and finished with 47 catches for 568 yards and two touchdowns. He was placed on injured reserve in December because of a kidney injury.

Prior to joining the Browns in 2014, Austin spent the previous seven seasons as a member of the Cowboys’ receiving corps. His best campaign came in 2009 when he racked up 81 catches for 1,320 yards and 11 scores. Hamstring injuries kept him out of the lineup for parts of the 2011 and ’13 seasons. He was released by Dallas in March of ’14 in a cost-cutting move.

Austin has missed 15 games in the past four seasons (nine in the last two). He has totaled 71 catches for 812 yards (11.4 YPR) and 2 TDs in his last 23 games.

Austin (6-2, 215) joins a mix that currently includes Jordan Matthews, Riley Cooper, Josh Huff, Will Murphy and Quron Pratt. He has experience playing both the slot and outside.

Kelly said last week that Matthews and Huff could both get a shot to play outside. And it’s entirely possible that the Eagles draft a wide receiver early in next month’s draft.

“We think in terms of our model that it’s a really good draft for wide receivers,” Kelly said. “We also have a lot of confidence in some of the guys. Jordan Matthews had an outstanding year for us as a rookie. He’s going into Year 2. Josh Huff, we’ve got a lot of high expectations for Josh. We’re excited about him. We have Riley Cooper back.

“We also have some tight ends that have a lot of flexibility. Zach Ertz is a multi-position player for us. And then we also have a swiss army knife in Darren Sproles who we can use in a lot of different ways. But again, we do think the draft is very talented from a wide receiver standpoint, so we’ll take a real good hard look at that also.”

Sheil Kapadia contributed to this article.