Trent Cole believes his extension with the Eagles shows the team is looking to take care of their own players this off-season

The Philadelphia Eagles may have spent the 2011 free-agency period making all the headlines by signing Nnamdi Asomugha and trading for Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, but this off-season Howie Roseman has taken a different approach. The Eagles GM has been rewarding players on his own team, particularly those who have been playing hard and not complaining about being underpaid in terms of their price on the open market.Defensive end Trent Cole was given a four-year extension that is worth $48.525 million in salary, including $15 million guaranteed. Philadelphia also gave offensive lineman Todd Herremans a three-year extension earlier in the week. Then the Eagles surprised many when they agreed on a deal with wide receiver DeSean Jackson on a five-year contract through. The deal is worth $51 million after Jackson has just been given a franchise tag. It looks like the Eagles have taken the approach of building from within for the future of this team.

Trent Cole joined WIP in Philadelphia with Anthony Gargano and Glen Macnow to discuss getting a contract extension from the Philadelphia Eagles, the Eagles front office sending a message to the team by giving extensions to himself and Todd Herremans, the improvements the Eagles need to make in the NFL draft, the challenges of playing in the “Wide 9″ defense and the Eagles making adjustments to the linebacker position of the defense.Congrats on the extension. How are you feeling?“Pretty good. I’m excited about the extension I just got. I’m looking forward to the season.”You were getting underpaid and you never made a big deal about it. The Eagles just signed you and Todd Herremans to big extensions. Are the Eagles sending a statement to the player by signing you guys?“It’s pretty much obvious that they are looking to take care of their own. That is what they are doing because they know they have a lot of great players here. They want to make this team very successful team and make us a happy team.”What do you want to see added to this team during free agency and the draft?“I think we got a lot of great players on this team. We had a short year with a lot of brand new faces and brand new coaches. We just needed that just from the mistakes and the rough times we had.

I think it all worked itself out towards the end and we were just a dollar short of getting to where we want to be at and I think like you said wherever we need help at I think the Eagles are going to do a great job of filling in the spots we need help in.”What was the challenge to adapting to the “Wide 9″ last year?“It was very different. I have been here for 7 years going on my 8th season and I have been taught to read and attack and attack and read. This ‘Wide 9′ was different. It made us a lot more free and it’s fun style defense to play and I think just personally I felt I caught onto towards the end of the season and wish I got more caught onto in the beginning of the season. With a short off-season like that it’s kind of hard to adapt to something and I’m pretty excited to run this ‘Wide 9′ come 2012.What do you see on tape to make this middle of the defense on lock down?“That is something I can’t answer. That’s something…I think the Eagles are going to do a great job to solve any problems that have come up this past year. I think they are going to do a well job to get that solved.”