Happy NFL New Year everybody! That’s right. Last Thursday marked the beginning of the new NFL season. Now I don’t know if anybody grabbed a drink, put their arms around someone and cranked out a few boozey lines to Auld Lang Syne or for that matter even knows what the Hell that song means. Uh, anyone? Auld Lang Syne? Anybody? Nobody? Little help?
“My whole life, I don’t know what this song means,” Harry, played by actor Billy Crystal, says in the 1989 movie When Harry Met Sally. “I mean, ‘should old acquaintance be forgot?’ Does that mean that we should forget old acquaintances or does it mean that if we happen to forget them, we should remember them, which is not possible because we already forgot ’em?”
“Well, maybe it just means that we should remember that we forgot them or something,” Meg Ryan’s character Sally responds. “Anyway, it’s about old friends.”
I think what Sally was trying to say was that it means waxing nostalgic about adventures and good times close friends shared long ago.
Hmmm, okay so does 33 days count as long ago? Because that’s how long it took from celebrating a Super Bowl Championship at a generational parade to the dismantling of the league’s number one defense. Or at least it feels that way. And if you ask the “former” Eagles about their feelings on accomplishing their life long dream just over a month ago, while wearing the unusual colors of their new team, in front of a room full of unfamiliar media faces at their introductory press conferences, you’ll probably get something similar to what Kenny Gainwell said to the Steelers beat writers and reporters the other day. “I can’t even say too much about it because it happened just like a couple weeks ago…um…I mean I can’t even get out the emotions even when I’m just talkin’ to my family…I mean it was a great game.”
Okay Kenny we’ll get back to you on that one when you get your emotions together and, uh, maybe figure out where the cafeteria is in your new work place in the ‘Burgh.
Gainwell was drafted by the Birds back in 2021 and played the last four years in Philly making $953,882 annually, with a $335,528 signing bonus and $335,528 guaranteed. He signed a one year deal with the Steelers worth $1.79 million for the 2025 season, including $620,000 guaranteed. So Gainwell essentially doubled his salary but only got a one year deal out of the Steelers. The Birds plan to replace him with second year back Will Shipley and former Packer running back A.J. Dillon, who missed all of last year with a neck injury. It seems like a lot of shell-shuffling to save what amounts to a few dinners for Jeffrey Lurie and some of his loyal lieutenants at La Famiglia on Front Street.
Howie Bled for This City
Just over a month ago Eagles’ General Manager Howie Roseman was being seduced by unparalleled praise, love bombing and a heaping helping of heart felt gratitude by a city that can be, let’s say – cynical at times. Howie can do no wrong right now and his people were letting him know how much they appreciated his brilliant roster construction of a team that has gone to two of the last three Super Bowls and is the reigning champion after a leave-no-doubt drubbing of the two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs in last month’s Super Bowl.
But fast forward a month and you might stumble across a little gem like this on Twitter/X:
PhillySportsFan @PhillyS69689421
“Howie is destroying this team. Does he think the fans pay to see him? He’s getting full of himself. He is dangerously close to losing this fan base for an entire generation.”
Only in Philly and yes, someone actually wrote and tweeted that. But we shouldn’t really be surprised. Around these parts you’re only as good as your last Saquon Barkley acquisition. This whole off-season reset can go all the way up to next season’s trade deadline, and with Roseman pushing the buttons and pulling the levers it usually does. So why is there panic in the streets less than week into free agency?
Well for starters here’s a list of the Birds from the championship season who have left for greener cash grabs.
Defense
EDGE Josh Sweat
DT Milton Williams
S Chauncey Gardner-Johnson
CB Darius Slay
CB Isaiah Rodgers
CB James Bradberry
LB Oren Burks
Offense
RB Kenneth Gainwell G Mekhi Becton
As you can see the league’s number one defense and perhaps the best defense the Philadelphia Eagles franchise has ever seen is undergoing a massive make-over. This isn’t anything new to the last team left standing in February. As an NFLer, you play for two things, money and a ring. The boys got their rings, now it’s time to get paid. Hey, it’s cool. It’s part of the natural order, the evolution of life in the NFL.
So have your panic attack and emotional overreaction and get back to me when you’re done.
Reality Check
Finished? Good because I charge by the half minute for these grounding reality-check sessions and the clock is running. Now scan that list again. If you look at the list a little closer, you’ll see that none of those players are core elements of that critically acclaimed defense I spoke so highly of above, sans maybe C.J. Gardner-Johnson, who was moved in a bit of a head scratching trade that only saved the team $3.7 million in cap space this year. More on that a little later. The others were all second tier guys who played their way on to the field and to a man, all had some sort of positive impact on the Birds’ Super Bowl run. Let’s be honest, the Birds and most of those former Birds on that list, saved their best two performances of the season for last, so naturally its what everyone will remember most. Its recency bias at its finest.
Of course there’s a price to pay for balling out on the planet’s biggest stage. Edge rusher Josh Sweat signed with the Arizona Cardinals for four years, 76.4 million. Sweat led the team in sacks during the regular season with eight but finished the season with 10.5 if you include the playoffs, and really made his money with an off-the-hook performance in the Super Bowl, recording 2.5 sacks, six tackles, two solo and two tackles for loss. He was so dominant against the Chiefs that at least one Eagle thought that he should have been the Super Bowl MVP (just ask him).
Defensive lineman Milton Williams finished the regular season with just five quarterback take-downs but also had the game of his life against Patrick Mahomes as the fourth year Eagle tacked on two sacks including a strip that resulted in one of the Birds three takeaways that glorious day in the Bayou making the 40-22 blowout look like the Big Easy. While most of the guys on defense who have already turned in their jerseys may not comprise the infrastructure of Vic Fangio’s finest masterpiece in a career that has spanned a half of a century, they were all impact players and with the exception of James Bradbury, all delivered huge postseason contributions that made a difference.
The Eagles sent C.J. Gardner-Johnson to the Texans in exchange for former first-round Guard Kenyon Green plus a pick swap. CJGJ and a 2026 6th-rounder to Houston for Green and a 2026 5th.
Gardner-Johnson is due $8.5 million and $11.5 million over the next two seasons. Green, whose time with the Texans was up and down, is in the last year of his rookie deal at $2.88 million. Clearly, Eagles OL coach Jeff Stoutland sees potential. Green was a first round pick of Houston’s four years ago but has been a bust so far in his NFL career. Pro Football Focus has Green rated as one of the worst guards in the league. He’s clearly a reclamation project in case Mekhi Becton signs else where which he did Friday night, signing a two year deal with the L.A. Chargers worth $20 million.
I keep hearing the move had nothing to do with Gardner-Johnson’s lack of self control on social media as well as on the field. I was told that this was strictly a money saving deal down the road. Okay I’ll buy that but I don’t like it a little bit. They could have crossed that bridge when it came. C.J.G.J. has had two stints here at the safety position and performed very well both times. Both times the Eagles went to the Super Bowl. He picked off six balls back in 2022 which was good enough for tops in the league despite missing five games with a lacerated kidney. This past season he picked off six balls again, good enough for third most in the league. He brings an epic swagger to the defense and gives them a nasty edge. He’s also a ball hawk and was one of the main reasons the Birds’ defense went from 30th in the league two seasons ago to number one this past year. So if you’re keeping score at home the Birds lost their top pass rusher and top ball hawk in the same off-season. Bad move on the latter Howie.
