THE Philadelphia Eagles Shocked the world of NFL earlier this month by exchanging CJ Gardner-Johnson security in Houston Texans for offensive goalkeeper Kenyon Green and a fifth round choice.
Many asked why the Eagles would exchange a fundamental part of their defense after winning the Super Bowl. GM Howie Roseman highlighted the situation during the annual NFL meetings.
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“I think if you just take the CJ.
“Really, when you look at our team and you are looking at the amount of very paid players who have obtained their contracts – we have eight guys who earn 15 million dollars or more – we have drafts from 2022 to 2024, we have eight runners who are in the Super Bowl team, none of these guys have long -term contracts. In these drafts. jobs.
“So you have a lot of players who are not under long -term contracts, as well as many guys who are under long -term contract, and we never want to be in a situation where we have a year when we get rid of 20 guys. And we have had the chance to be aggressive to keep our guys and sign guys in free agency, and that also had the chance to line up with the draft and to have young players.
Admittedly, this is the important thing to do, it is to write well and then keep your players. And so we have to make sure that in the future, we also have the opportunity to do so. Many of these players we are talking about are good young players who are fascinating us. And so we had to make difficult decisions here. “”
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The Eagles have left several good players to walk this offseason due to financial constraints, including key contributors from Milton Williams, Josh Sweat and Isaiah Rodgers. The maintenance of Zack Baun was their absolute priority this offseason, and they signed it for an extension of $ 51 million over three years. They also extended Saquon Barkley and Lane Johnson.
Roseman probably wanted to avoid a potential contract dispute with Gardner-Johnson in preparation to pay his young players. Cam Jurgens, Jordan Davis, Nakobe Dean, Nolan Smith, Jalen Carter, Quinon Mitchell and Cooper Dejean are all on recruit contracts, Carter providing to reset the defensive tackle market next year.
The Eagles must release as much money as possible to keep their foundation together, and Gardner-Johnson was a victim of this process. Roseman was certainly too sentimental with the players after their victory for the Super Bowl LII, and he does not make this mistake this time.
This article originally appeared on Eagles Wire: Howie Roseman explains why the Eagles exchanged Cj Gardner-Johnson
