I trust Howie but tbh do not get this move. CGJ adds an intangible swagger to the D that isn’t easily replaceable. 

Red star player Sydney better be ready to step up. They’ve clearly done this move because they think they can similar production from him and save a few cap dollars

CJ had that Dog in him and was willing to lay it all out and smack someone in the mouth. I think Carter has that too. I just hope the energy isn't less without CJ.

I was so happy when he came back. I thought we'd keep him. Severely disappointed that we traded him again. I'm a big fan of his. He'll do well in Houston with DeMeco but man, going to miss him.

Add me to the list of people confused by this move.

It cannot be just a raw salary cap move -- the Eagles are simply not in dire straits from a salary cap perspective, and while CJGJ was making $9M a year, which is not nothing, it is also not enough to really move the salary cap needle for a player who produced while he was here and is only 27 years old.

Given that, I do not see how you make this move unless you feel really good about your plan to replace CJGJ at safety.  If they feel really good about Sydney Brown, well, that would be the kind of hubris Roseman has been accused of before because Brown has proven nothing.  (Truly believing they can perform another Becton type of transformation on Kenyon Green would similarly reek of hubris.)

The only other possibility would seem to be that Howie knows he is going to be bringing in someone else that is very good.  I hope that is the case, but I fear it is not.

 

36 minutes ago, BayAreaLennie said:

Add me to the list of people confused by this move.

It cannot be just a raw salary cap move -- the Eagles are simply not in dire straits from a salary cap perspective, and while CJGJ was making $9M a year, which is not nothing, it is also not enough to really move the salary cap needle for a player who produced while he was here and is only 27 years old.

Given that, I do not see how you make this move unless you feel really good about your plan to replace CJGJ at safety.  If they feel really good about Sydney Brown, well, that would be the kind of hubris Roseman has been accused of before because Brown has proven nothing.  (Truly believing they can perform another Becton type of transformation on Kenyon Green would similarly reek of hubris.)

The only other possibility would seem to be that Howie knows he is going to be bringing in someone else that is very good.  I hope that is the case, but I fear it is not.

 

9 mil is a huge amount to lop off your cap. That is a very big savings and we need the space to extend our core guys. I dont care for Brown in coverage. He reacts slowly. We will draft a S for sure and throw him into the mix and i would expect to sign a vet safety too

3 hours ago, DaBirds said:

Is CJ a complete pain in the butt to coach/be in a locker room with? No one wants him around very long. 

If that's the case then why did they bring him back?

Some of you guys like to make up anything to justify Howie

 

 

9 minutes ago, NOTW said:

 

 

At least he took it well 

Looks like a bad trade, but I’m not going to doubt Howie here. Maybe Green will graduate with honors from Stoutland U. 

I like what CJGJ brought to the defense as far as attitude. It was something we definitely missed in 2023. No, CJGJ wasn't the reason we went to the Super Bowl in 2022 and 2024, but the defense was and teammates fed off his energy. 

Right now, Green is awful. Nobody should be expecting him to win the RG spot this year. He's a project at best and realistically, he'll probably be this year's version of Albert Okwuegbunam who will take up a spot on the 53 all year and never play. He was that bad for the Texans. Steen is light-years ahead of him as an NFL OG. 

To me he was the least impactful of the four defensive starters we lost over the last couple of days, but due to the in house options will be the hardest one to replace. McCollum is barely a rosterable NFL player and Sydney Brown has shown zero football IQ thus far.

1 minute ago, T-1000 said:

To me he was the least impactful of the four defensive starters we lost over the last couple of days, but due to the in house options will be the hardest one to replace. McCollum is barely a rosterable NFL player and Sydney Brown has shown zero football IQ thus far.

We also have Lewis Cine as a wildcard. He has the talent if the mental is 100% (post injury). He has the extra incentive of getting to play with a lot of Georgia teammates, so it will be interesting to watch what happens with him.

McCollum came in a few times last season and wasn't really impressive in those moments, but he did play well in his limited chances in 2023 and in the 2024 preseason. I still think he's a future starter in the NFL, but probably not in 2025. I'm not sure what to expect with Sydney Brown. He's high energy and he missed much of the 2024 prep due to his rehab. He should get that work this year and that will go a long way on his development. I feel like McCollum was more of a Blankenship replacement and Brown was more of a CJGJ replacement as depth. So if I had to pick from the 3, I think Brown is the safe bet for emerging as the starter if nobody else of note is added. But Cine shouldn't be ruled out entirely. A lot of people did that with Rodgers before last season, simply because they didn't know what to expect. 

2 minutes ago, brkmsn said:

We also have Lewis Cine as a wildcard. He has the talent if the mental is 100% (post injury). He has the extra incentive of getting to play with a lot of Georgia teammates, so it will be interesting to watch what happens with him.

McCollum came in a few times last season and wasn't really impressive in those moments, but he did play well in his limited chances in 2023 and in the 2024 preseason. I still think he's a future starter in the NFL, but probably not in 2025. I'm not sure what to expect with Sydney Brown. He's high energy and he missed much of the 2024 prep due to his rehab. He should get that work this year and that will go a long way on his development. I feel like McCollum was more of a Blankenship replacement and Brown was more of a CJGJ replacement as depth. So if I had to pick from the 3, I think Brown is the safe bet for emerging as the starter if nobody else of note is added. But Cine shouldn't be ruled out entirely. A lot of people did that with Rodgers before last season, simply because they didn't know what to expect. 

I'm not seeing it even a little bit with McCollum. Brown has zero football IQ or discipline in coverage which is bad enough, but a major issue in a Fangio system.

Good point on Cine.

29 minutes ago, T-1000 said:

I'm not seeing it even a little bit with McCollum. Brown has zero football IQ or discipline in coverage which is bad enough, but a major issue in a Fangio system.

Good point on Cine.

Somebody should do a film review of McCollum (2024). I believe he's better than you think. He needs more time to develop at the pro level, but he shows promise. I'm not sure what you mean about Brown's "football IQ." I think he plays a bit out of control at times, but I don't believe it's because of a lack of situational understanding as much as just a lack of experience. Again, I don't know if he will put it all together as a player, but if he does, he could very much resemble CJGJ, minus the trash talking. 

Howie is clearly a Swifty. The parade shirt doomed him.

12 hours ago, EazyEaglez said:

This one is a bit of a shocker. Not sure what the plan is, but the number one defense is getting dismantled.

Exactly.

Lets not give this team too much credit here that they can just manifest the same magic again next year. Pederson knows this.

You don't let this many players walk from a #1 defense and say were fine.

This offseason has been idiotic thus far but week 1 is a long way off.

21 minutes ago, DevilMayRage said:

Exactly.

Lets not give this team too much credit here that they can just manifest the same magic again next year. Pederson knows this.

You don't let this many players walk from a #1 defense and say were fine.

This offseason has been idiotic thus far but week 1 is a long way off.

We are more than fine... And this offseason has not been idiotic it's been fully expected other than the CJ trade... This could end up being another hassan reddick situation with CJ... They kept Sweat last year and moved reddick and that worked out... The Eagles have a lot of cap tied to hurts brown Smith Barkley and the oline and you still have to sign Jurgens... 

 

What would you rather do sign Milton Williams and Josh Sweat right now and then risk losing Carter Nolan Smith and Jurgens? I sure wouldn't... This team is in great shape and set up to contend for the next several years 

2 hours ago, Aspiritfall said:

We are more than fine... And this offseason has not been idiotic it's been fully expected other than the CJ trade... This could end up being another hassan reddick situation with CJ... They kept Sweat last year and moved reddick and that worked out... The Eagles have a lot of cap tied to hurts brown Smith Barkley and the oline and you still have to sign Jurgens... 

 

What would you rather do sign Milton Williams and Josh Sweat right now and then risk losing Carter Nolan Smith and Jurgens? I sure wouldn't... This team is in great shape and set up to contend for the next several years 

I don’t want to trash Howie or anything like that, but I don’t really get the Reddick comparison here. Look all I know is when CJGJ was on this roster the Eagles had a great defense and they went to two Suoer Bowls. Without him they looked lost and had one of the worst defenses in football. Heck even this past season when CJGJ got booted out the game the defense fell apart. I wouldn’t be so quick to assume everything is going to just be fine now that he’s gone, because right now the Eagles are relying on a player that they didn’t even trust last season to play. 

3 hours ago, Aspiritfall said:

We are more than fine... And this offseason has not been idiotic it's been fully expected other than the CJ trade... This could end up being another hassan reddick situation with CJ... They kept Sweat last year and moved reddick and that worked out... The Eagles have a lot of cap tied to hurts brown Smith Barkley and the oline and you still have to sign Jurgens... 

 

What would you rather do sign Milton Williams and Josh Sweat right now and then risk losing Carter Nolan Smith and Jurgens? I sure wouldn't... This team is in great shape and set up to contend for the next several years 

Sweat and Willimas aren't the issue.  95% of real Eagle fans knew they were gone.  About 75% of real Eagle fans figured Becton would be gone.  It is the semi-starters, real quality depth guys that bother me.  Rodgers and Burks signed for the NFL equivalent of chump change.  They were important pieces.  Same with Fred Johnson.  Hope he comes back but Howie apparently doesn't want to pay anything to guys like that.  Burks signed for 2.5 M a year.  I would bet Howie never even made him an offer.

1 hour ago, Eagles1960 said:

Sweat and Willimas aren't the issue.  95% of real Eagle fans knew they were gone.  About 75% of real Eagle fans figured Becton would be gone.  It is the semi-starters, real quality depth guys that bother me.  Rodgers and Burks signed for the NFL equivalent of chump change.  They were important pieces.  Same with Fred Johnson.  Hope he comes back but Howie apparently doesn't want to pay anything to guys like that.  Burks signed for 2.5 M a year.  I would bet Howie never even made him an offer.

I feel the same! And whilst Rodgers and Burks were depth players last year I think they stood to be big important players this year. That bothers me because at the moment it leaves us short in those positions for next year. Plenty of time to still address of course but I am not keen on the moves so far.

2 hours ago, EazyEaglez said:

I don’t want to trash Howie or anything like that, but I don’t really get the Reddick comparison here. Look all I know is when CJGJ was on this roster the Eagles had a great defense and they went to two Suoer Bowls. Without him they looked lost and had one of the worst defenses in football. Heck even this past season when CJGJ got booted out the game the defense fell apart. I wouldn’t be so quick to assume everything is going to just be fine now that he’s gone, because right now the Eagles are relying on a player that they didn’t even trust last season to play. 

I'm talking about behind the scenes we don't know what might have been going on with CJ nobody knew of any issues with reddick before he was traded 

We’ll have core guys in their prime on multi year big money deals. Guys on rookie contracts and select one year cheap deal vets. We dont have cash for the middle class 3-10 mil right now as we prepare to lock up young core guys

Next to go might be Goedert and a late 5 for a 4

32 minutes ago, weko said:

We’ll have core guys in their prime on multi year big money deals. Guys on rookie contracts and select one year cheap deal vets. We dont have cash for the middle class 3-10 mil right now as we prepare to lock up young core guys

Middle class gets screwed again.  

What we have seen happen so far is indicative of Howie eyeing the future and not just the now. We could have gone all in on our depth pieces this year and then not had the ability to extend Jurgens, Carter, Dean, N. Smith, Mitchell, DeJean, and Blankenship later. 

One of the best things we can do to help the defense is to continue to have a ball-control, clock eating offense. But after that, it's bringing in talented players that compete for playing time. Last year we saw the rise of Smith, Hunt, Ojomo, Booker and even Trotter Jr. when they were given opportunities. Right now, we have to wait a bit for Dean and BVS to return, but they will return at some point. So we'll trust Trotter to continue to build off a good showing as a rookie. I had hoped we'd retain Rodgers, but he won a close battle last season with Ringo and I'm far from concerned about what I've seen from Ringo in his first two seasons. Ojomo was every bit as effective at DT as Williams last season in our defense. and Booker also showed good production in 167 snaps. Hunt is way ahead of schedule in his development and looks legit. Currently, we are looking at Brown, McCollum and Cine to compete for the opening at safety. Cine is the most talented, but we have not been able to get a look at him in a game yet. But even if we have to ride with the winner between Brown and McCollum, it's not as bad as people think. Obviously we will sign some free agents and draft some prospects on defense between now and the start of OTAs. So we don't have the whole picture. It's not as gloomy, though, as some would have us believe. And, as I said, Howie is eyeing the future. Did we see what Garrett and Crosby got paid? Carter will set the new record when we extend him. 

Guys like Burks stepped up and played good football last season, but go back and read the boards, a majority of the fan base thought Trotter deserved the call as much as he did. The decision came down to experience. Now Burks has moved on and Trotter will be counted on more. He's cheaper, under contract for 3 more seasons and not a drop-off as Burks' replacement. This is how the NFL works. We have guys that we like at every position and we don't have to pay more for equal production.