Nnamdi Asomugha was heavily pursued when he entered free agency in 2011 and eventually landed with the Philadelphia Eagles. The former Raiders star signed a five-year $60 million contract with $25 million guaranteed, but his teammates were unimpressed with his performance from Day 1.
In a recent guest appearance on the I Am Athlete Podcast, former Eagles cornerback Asante Samuel described Asomugha as “overrated.” Samuel was asked to talk about the first thing that comes to mind when he hears Asomugha’s name, and he replied in a very open way.
“The first thing that comes to mind is how the NFL can manipulate, control the narrative to make things seem like they are not,” Samuel said. “You can’t make up no excuses for the level of play if it falls this low from one team to another. You can’t be this good over here, and then you come over here and all of a sudden you ain’t that good because of this and that.”
Samuel was referring to how different Asomugha’s stats looked between his time with the then-Oakland Raiders and Philadelphia. Asomugha only surrendered one touchdown in 45 games with the Raiders through 2008-10, but he went on to allow nine over 32 games with the Eagles.
LeSean McCoy, the 2011 Eagles’ star running back, told a story about Asomugha’s first one-on-one during practice. At first, everyone was excited and thought having Asomugha on the roster was a big deal — but they changed their minds after watching him go against tight end Brent Celek. Celek beat him on a post-corner route, ending the illusion the hype had created.
Asomugha was cut from the Eagles after two seasons and then had a brief stint with the San Francisco 49ers, which ended with him being waived in November 2013. In December 2013, Asomugha signed a one-day contract with the Raiders so he could officially retire with the franchise.