After allowing Darius Slay to seek a trade prior to the start of the new league year, the Philadelphia Eagles have opted to release the veteran cornerback.
The Eagles say goodbye to Darius Slay
Darius Slay is now 32 years old and was under contract for one more year in Philadelphia. The tricky part was that he carried a whopping $26M hit going into next year and the Eagles, as we know, have plenty of tricky decisions where they need all of the cap help they can get their hands on.
The Eagles are releasing the former Lion with a post-June 1st designation, which will save $16M in cap space. This money can be reinvested in areas of need and one could already argue that the funds were used to bring back the teams’ other pending cornerback free agent – James Bradberry.
With the cornerback market underwhelming up to this point, it became clear quickly that Darius Slay wasn’t going to fetch an awful lot in terms of trade value. The Eagles did the next best thing by protecting their cap space and allowing Slay to look elsewhere to secure the money he’s worth.
The Eagles now have a clear direction at cornerback. James Bradberry is CB1 and the team has two first-round picks to find a CB2 who can develop for a few years and eventually take over that throne
Other implications
This should also open the door for a potential Chauncey Gardner-Johnson return. The Safety market has not been as expensive as many originally thought and as a result, CJGJ might decide to return to a Super Bowl contender on a prove-it deal so he can test the market once again next year.
Photo by Kyle Ross/Icon Sportswire
