Will Underdeveloped Safety Market Impact Eagles’ Ability to Resign CJ Gardner-Johnson?

Everyone thought that CJ Gardner-Johnson would be one of the first Eagles free agents off the board. Instead, we’re five days into free agency, and the Eagles fan favorite remains unsigned. Market demand for safeties hasn’t been what most thought it would be, and that’s probably why he’s unsigned. How will that lower market impact the Eagles’ ability to get a deal done, though?

CBS’s Jeff Kerr tweeted out this rundown of safety contracts earlier today.

Jessie Bates broke the bank in the early moments of free agency, leaving most Eagles fans believing that the Birds’ chance of resigning CJGC was out the window. Since then, however, no other safety has gotten anything close to Bates’s $16m a year, which now looks like it could be an overpay on the Falcons, who misjudged the market.

Jordan Poyer, a one-time 7th-round pick of the Eagles during the Chip Kelly era, has a Pro Bowl and an All-Pro distinction on his resume, and he a little over $6.25m a year and didn’t even make the list in Kerr’s tweet. Julian Love graded out similarly to CJGJ this year and got just $6m a year. What makes Poyer’s contract even crazier is that former Eagles Marcus Epps got $6m a year from the Raiders.

Spotrac listed the market value for Gardner-Johnson at 5 years, $66m. That looked possible after the Bates deal. CJGJ is a 25-year-old safety coming off a career year in which he tied for the NFL lead in interceptions despite missing several games. After every subsequent safety deal, however, it’s hard to imagine a long-term deal for him approaching that value which would be just on the outside of the top 10 safety contracts in the NFL based on AAV.

Most have speculated that the way the market unfolded could help the Eagles in their negotiations, but it could hurt their ability to sign him long-term. If CJGJ can’t get anywhere close to the value he and his camp were looking for, he could try the route of a one-year prove-it deal in hopes of cashing in next year. It would be risky but could work out for him in the long term. A one-year deal, however, would give the Eagles less flexibility in terms of how Howie can work his cap magic.

So far, the only two other teams linked to CJGJ are the Bengals and the Broncos. The Bengals have signed a pair of safeties this week already, which could take them out of the running. The Broncos interest to this point has been rumored.

In a perfect world, Howie Roseman and Gardner-Johnson’s representatives work out a fair deal for both sides that keeps him in Philly for years to come. Roseman already found a way to keep both James Bradberry and Darius Slay. Keeping Gardner-Johnson as well got a bit more complicated than originally thought, but the one constant we heard all week is that the Eagles are committed to finding a way to get it done. It’ll take two to tango, though, and as we saw with Darius Slay, the Eagles aren’t going to overpay and will stand their ground.