The big news of the weekend for the Philadelphia Eagles was the unfortunate news that CJ Gardner Johnson is leaving the Birds for just a one-year deal with the Detroit Lions worth a max of $8m and just $6.5m guaranteed. For weeks we heard that the Eagles were making a “strong push” to sign CJGJ to a long-term deal. Unfortunately for the Eagles, that didn’t happen, and unfortunately for CJ Gardner Johnson, he ended up signing a one-year, prove-it deal instead of getting a long-term deal.
After news broke that Gardner Johnson signed the one-year deal, Twitter was on fire, questioning why the up-and-coming safety had to sign a prove-it deal. His representation quickly took to Twitter, trying to justify the deal.
Not surprisingly, most of the comments were not what they were expecting. It’s not a good look for them or their client to be tweeting out justifications for contracts like this when everyone knows that the player was looking for a long-term deal before signing for the same annual contract value as his former teammate Marcus Epps. Three weeks ago, everyone would have said you were crazy if you told them that Epps and Gardner Johnson would be playing for the same money in 2023.
Shortly after the news broke, the Eagles beat all reported that the Eagles did indeed offer a long-term deal early in free agency, but it was declined because they felt there was a bigger market for CJGJ. When the safety market failed to materialize and players like Jordan Poyer, who has a much better resume than Gardner-Johnson, were signing for $6m a year, the chance for a long-term, big-money deal went out the window.
If we are to believe the tweets from the beat last night, the Eagles moved their attention to signing both James Bradberry and Darius Slay when their offer to CJGJ was reportedly declined. The thing about that, however, is we know that they nearly released Slay last week before ultimately resigning him. Resigning Bradberry was a surprise since most felt like he was long-gone, but nothing is totally adding up here.
Whenever deals like this falls through, each side is going to let leak to their friends in the media what they want to be heard. It’s no surprise that shortly after the news broke that multiple members of the Philly media all tweeted out essentially the same thing. Many of the same media members, however, were tweeting out AFTER the Slay extension that the Eagles were still focusing on resigning Gardner Johnson as well.
Again, nothing here totally adds up. It wouldn’t be surprising if more reports surface from outside the Philly media that paint an even different picture of all this.
The only thing that is certain right now, is the Philadelphia Eagles are in need of help at safety. Reed Blankenship showed a ton of promise in 2022 and was already expected to play a big role. The Birds need a veteran presence at the back of the defense as well, however, and will likely bring in someone before the draft. Former fan favorite Jalen Mills is available after being cut by the New England Patriots on Friday. The Green Goblin makes even more sense for the Eagles now that Gardner Johnson is off to Detroit.
