The Philadelphia Eagles have many of their core pieces under contract already heading into 2025, making the offseason less about filling massive roster holes, and more about reloading for another Super Bowl run.
The team kicked off their offseason by releasing cornerback Darius Slay in a cost saving maneuver, a move the 34 year old said he knew was likely coming. “It is part of the business, and, nah, I’m not hurt about it,” Slay said on his podcast. “I’m not sad about it because this is what I signed up for. I knew I gave that team everything I had, the organization everything I had. So, it’s always a possibility, though, of your boy coming back. It’s not always throw it in the back, but this time I’m just thankful enough that I could get ahead of free agency if I find me a good destination for myself.”
“But hopefully, you know, we’ll see how the Eagles do. If the Eagles do something nice, they know I’d love to be back. They know that, they know that, and I understand how this game is. Teams get younger. Teams want to save cap space because they pay younger guys for their future. And that’s why I said there are no hard feelings.”
“I know I’m 34. I know I’m way out of my prime but still playing at an elite, elite level,” he said. “I know me and Howie had a great talk and he said the same. It’s not that I can’t play, that’s just part of the business. He just said we’ll see how things shake out and we will. So possibly, he might spin the block back just like he did last time. And look, he [spun] the block back and a year, two years later, Super Bowl champs. So, you know what I’m saying? We’ll see.”
If Slay is indeed willing to take a pay cut, then a reunion may be in the cards for the Birds and the former Lions DB. However, if another team offers him a market value or above contract, then Roseman and co. will have no issue turning the page and rolling with rookie standouts Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean.
Their next piece of business was a move that the club didn’t need to make, but felt was right. Philadelphia signed running back Saquon Barkley to a 2 year, $41.2M contract extension making him the highest paid RB in NFL history.
The league’s first ever $20M+ running back will see his new deal feature $36M in guarantees with another $15M more available in performance based escalators. Barkley signed a $37.75M deal with the Eagles as a free agent last season, meaning the club had no impetus to dole out additional cash.
However, the signing was more of a signal to the rest of the league that Philadelphia wants to be known as a franchise that looks after their own. Following an Offensive Player of the Year win, and becoming only the 9th RB in NFL history to rush for more than 2,000 yards, Barkley will now be leaned on to be one of the faces of the franchise moving forward. Something that head coach Nick Sirianni is more than comfortable with.
“It’s very obvious when you watch the tape how good of a player he is, right. But the things that he has that he brings to our football team as far as his leadership, his work ethic. He’s an awesome teammate. Those are the things that make him very special,” Sirianni said.
“And that’s pretty special that I’m saying that even more after you see him jumping over guys backwards and all that stuff.”
But perhaps the tidiest piece of business so far this offseason from the front office was retaining All-Pro linebacker Zack Baun. Baun joined the Eagles on a 1 year, $3.5M deal during free agency last season, and instantly became the best bargain in all of football.
Because of his game changing on field play (151 tackles, 11 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, 5 forced fumbles, 1 INT, 4 passes defended), many assumed that Baun would receive a massive pay day in free agency and become a cap casualty for the birds. However Roseman flipped that narrative on its head, inking the linebacker to a 3 year, $51M contract extension, making him the 4th highest paid LB in the league.
Only Roquan Smith, Fred Warner, and Tremaine Edmunds are currently making more than Baun’s $17M AAV mark. His deal also features $34M in guaranteed money.
That being said, Philadelphia still has cap space to work with, but likely not enough to retain their full compliment of starters from their championship season. The Eagles have already restructured most of the deals they could have in order to generate more internal cap space, so a “paper transaction” isn’t likely to move the needle much.
Getting an extension in place for OL Cam Jurgens could create some more room, and may be the next domino to fall in the City of Brotherly Love, but outside of that, it’s hard to see a path (be it trade, or release) for Roseman to create meaningful salary room in 2025.
As a result, it’s quite likely the team will need to say goodbye to Milton Williams and Josh Sweat, barring either of them wanting to take a massive pay cut to stay in Philadelphia. Instead, trades may be how the front office looks to add to the roster moving forward, as deals for players like Myles Garrett (who has let everyone know how he feels about being in Cleveland this offseason), wouldn’t bring the same kind of cap hit to the team acquiring the player as a free agent signing would.
It will also be interesting to see how Roseman approaches the draft. The team has no 6th or 7th round picks, but 3 picks in the 5th round. Does Howie package some picks together to move up? Or does he look to trade back and accumulate more later round picks that he can work in as rotational pieces in the early going.
Philadelphia’s 2025 NFL Draft Picks
- Round 1, pick 32
- Round 2, pick 64
- Round 3, pick 96
- Round 4, pick 129 (via Detroit Lions)
- Round 5, pick 162 (via Houston Texans)
- Round 5, pick 166 (via Washington Commanders)
- Round 5, pick 169
All in all, the Eagles are in a great spot heading into the start of the new NFL season. While they might lose some bodies along the defensive line in Williams, Sweat, and whatever Brandon Graham ultimately decides to do (he’s since planted the seed that he might not retire after all), the roster still has enough young pieces who can step into larger roles in 2025 that the team isn’t likely to miss a beat to start their title defence.
Photo: Alexander Jonesi. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.