4 Philadelphia Eagles who won’t be back in 2025 after dominating Super Bowl LIX

After the Super Bowl in 2022, the Philadelphia Eagles lost eight starters over the offseason. Luckily, that won’t be the case this season. We’re looking at four or five starters who won’t be back in 2025 because of retirement or free agency, ending their Eagles tenure on the mountaintop after bringing Philly a second Super Bowl victory.

While that is great because it means the team is still going to be incredibly talented, it kind of stinks. This isn’t a situation like after 2023, where a one-year player like Zach Cunningham left, and no one really cared. These are players that have been around for either a long time or their entire careers. These are guys who have been incredibly helpful in giving the Eagles some of the best seasons in franchise history.

Free agency and retirement are going to take away some of the best Eagles in recent history.

This isn’t an ode to the players that will be leaving the Eagles; this is informative. That’s important because two of these guys are players who could be retiring. Players who leave after helping bring the franchise another Super Bowl deserve more than just a section in an article. That’s especially true since all of these players have been with the Eagles for three or more years. 

4. Milton Williams

The Eagles drafted Milton Williams in the third round of the 2021 draft. That means his rookie deal is up and he’ll hit free agency. 

In his first two seasons, he was a rotational player on a stacked defensive line, but after Javon Hargrave left in free agency after the 2022 season, he became kind of a mainstay on the defense. 

He was probably the biggest beneficiary of the attention that Jalen Carter demanded because it gave Williams one-on-ones all the time. Because of that, he led the Eagles’ defensive tackles with a 12.5% pressure rate during the regular season. 

So yeah, he didn’t have the same pop as Jalen Carter did, but there aren’t many players that do. It also doesn’t help that his name is “Milton” because that’s one of the most unassuming names ever.

It sure feels like he’s going to go the way of Javon Hargrave in free agency, but just to a lesser extent. Where the 49ers picked up Hargrave for $21 million per year, Williams will probably get paid somewhere around $13 million to $17 million per year. 

It stinks to see draft picks go after their contract is over, but it doesn’t feel like the Eagles are going to pay him that much.

3. Josh Sweat

The Eagles drafted Sweat in the fourth round of the 2018 draft. He signed a three-year extension in 2021 that was restructured in March of 2024, and now he’s entering free agency. 

The writing is kind of on the wall here: On Monday, Feb. 3, Sweat changed his agent to Drew Rosenhaus, who represents a bunch of big-time and highly-paid players (Tyreek Hill, Jalen Carter, D.J. Moore, Javon Hargrave). 

If you’re looking to get a dump truck full of cash parked in your driveway, you hire an agent who knows how to make that happen. The Eagles probably aren’t going to load that truck for Sweat with the emergence of Nolan Smith and the seemingly successful development of Jalyx Hunt.

Sweat led the Eagles with eight sacks this season. He’s a really good player, but he’s not a truly elite edge rusher. If Howie Roseman is going to pay an edge rusher, he’s going to make sure they’re more talented, more consistent, and more clutch than Sweat.

2. Darius Slay

This has been Darius “Big Play” Slay’s 12th year in the NFL. He turned 34 on Jan. 1. He’s a cornerback. The fact that he’s lasted this long is a miracle in itself. 

Unfortunately, it’s looking like that career might be coming to an end. 

Going into the season, we knew Slay was on his last legs. After the Eagles’ second day of OTAs back in May of 2024, Slay was asked about how many years he had left in the NFL.

He said, “Oh, S---. Not too many. I aint gonna keep playing. I’m gonna let these young guys eat. So that’s why I’m here: to make sure these guys get there. And when my time is up, it’s up. You know I’m trying to be a full-time daddy and stuff like that…” (19:54 in the video below)

It only became more apparent from there, but not in the way that we’ve seen in the past. Most of the time a cornerback will fall off a cliff, but Slay stayed at the top of his game throughout the whole season.

The problem was that it became rare for him to play a game without missing a handful of snaps due to getting dinged up. His body wasn’t holding up the way it used to, which makes a whole lot of sense, and you can’t blame him for that.

In the week between the wild card game and the divisional game, a story came out about defensive backs coach Christian Parker putting a gas tank next to Slay's locker with a note that said, “How much gas do you have left in the Big Play tank? -CP.”

After the Rams game, Slay was asked about the gas tank.

He said, “…I’m just gonna miss a lot of this, a lot of this love going on around here with the teammates and great s--- like that. So I’m just gonna miss this. There’s some gas left… I’m ready to go chill, raise the kids, be a family man, you know, take care of my youngest, you know, so I’ve been doing football long enough. I owe my family some time too as well” (7:33 in the video below)

It sounds like we may have seen the last snaps of Big Play. It’s been awesome, and the way he’s played in his two Super Bowl runs has been paramount to the teams’ success.

1. Brandon Graham

B.G. might not have been the best Eagle of all time, but he’s embodied the Philadelphia Eagles the most of any player. 

The Eagles picked him with the 13th pick of the 2010 draft, and his career started incredibly slowly, but he kept going, and he thrived. All of that culminated when he made the most important play in franchise history when he strip-sacked Tom Brady with 2:14 left in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl LII. 

The way he kept pushing through everything has been astonishing. That was emphasized when he tore his Achilles in Week 2 of the 2021 season and back as a 34-year-old in 2022 to have the best season of his career logging 11 sacks.

That wasn’t the end of his resilience. He tore his tricep on November 24, 2024, and came back to play in the Super Bowl on February 9, 2025, just 77 days later. That’s some superhuman stuff. 

Maybe this season wasn’t the farewell tour that B.G. wanted because of his injury and he’ll stick around for another season, but if he chooses to retire after winning the Super Bowl, no one could blame him.

He’ll be around the organization forever, which is great. We might never hear his world-class trash talk again, but it won’t be the last time we hear his laugh.