The phrase "ago essentially" is not correct and does not make sense in written English.
It seems to be a combination of two separate ideas that do not logically fit together.
Example: "The event happened a long time ago, essentially changing the course of history."
Alternatives: "essentially in the past" or "long ago in essence".
Even the loquacious safety Antrel Rolle — who a year ago essentially made the argument in a radio interview that Coughlin was living in the past — acknowledged as much, praising Coughlin for steadying the Giants before their season toppled over.
The video ad format, which the company launched a few years ago, essentially allows advertisers pay to promote videos in search results and on the YouTube home page.
Enough time had passed since the kimberlites reached the surface that the continents had shifted, so Torsvik's team had to create maps of the continents as they were hundreds of millions of years ago, essentially rewinding plate tectonics.
One hundred years ago essentially all men in their early 60s worked; today just six in ten do, and the typical retirement age has steadily declined (while life expectancy has increased).
Bungie and Activision teamed up all those years ago essentially because the former needed a jump-start to develop Destiny, and the latter was of course always looking for big titles to produce and milk for cash.
Tools employed by the museum's first armorers nearly 80 years ago -- essentially, equipment for blacksmiths -- are still there, but have been supplemented by ever more sophisticated devices, including tiny electrical brushes much like a dentist's.
That wireless spectrum Mr. McCaw bought many years ago is essentially worthless — it's just too difficult to commercialize.
Despite some catchy new brand names, the pills I took 25 years ago are essentially the same as those my daughter takes today.
Blount's account of a year within an N.F.L. team thirty years ago was essentially festive and high-spirited; Feinstein's is unrelievedly gloomy, tense, and depressing.
Last January the state's Supreme Court ruled that term limits approved by the county's voters more than a dozen years ago — and essentially ignored — were valid.
Mr. Scowcroft's proposal, drafted more than a year ago but essentially ignored by the White House until recently, would also create a director of national intelligence, one with even broader powers than in Ms. Harman's plan.
