The Philadelphia Eagles enter the 2025 NFL campaign sitting on top of the world as reigning, defending Super Bowl champions. All the moves their front office has made over the past couple of years, spearheaded by general manager Howie Roseman, have paid off and then some. For a while now, it’s felt like everything that guy touched, turned to gold. However, after the news that broke on Monday, teams around the league might be feeling like Philly isn’t invincible after all. Philadelphia is parting ways with offensive lineman Kenyon Green, whom the team traded C.J. Gardner-Johnson for in the offseason.
The #Eagles are waiving former #Texans 1st-round G Kenyon Green, whom they acquired in the C.J. Gardner-Johnson trade, per @mzenitz. pic.twitter.com/IGQWiITsVs
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) August 25, 2025
Is the Eagles front office cooling off?
For some, this move to cut ties with Green after trading for him months earlier could be a sign that the Eagles aren’t as strong as once thought. This team isn’t untouchable as it feels like Roseman just hasn’t missed on much of late in the City of Brotherly Love. After acquiring A.J. Brown a few years ago and pulling off the Saquon Barkley deal last offseason, the Eagles and Roseman felt like nothing was out of their grasp.
One thing about it is when you make these types of moves to position the team for a title run, eventually you’ve got to pay the piper. In this scenario, piper equals player and at a certain point this means somebody will end up a salary cap casualty like Johnson, who was not happy about the trade.
Oh Boy: CJ Gardner-Johnson went OFF on the Eagles and DC Vic Fangio for trading him:
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) June 4, 2025
CJ says Philly used him as a “test dummy” and says they made a problem with him when he had no issues with anyone.
😳😳😳 pic.twitter.com/EjLddsvQPN
"I was a test dummy for them. So now they can be like my 'scheme' work, or did my skill set make it work. I had 0 issues. (People) had issues with me. So yeah let the salary cap be the 'excuse.'
"All I asked them was like, between me and y'all, I told them, I just want to go somewhere where I can go play winning football,” Gardner-Johnson said on a livestream. “I didn't ask for a specific place. This honesty. I want to play winning football. Other than that, I woke up the next day and boom there it is, we in Houston."
Winning and losing
Anytime a trade goes down, we immediately talk about who won and lost. The Eagles are clearly the loser here even after Gardner-Johnson suffering an injury in Texans training camp earlier this month. This is one that the Eagles have to chalk up as a loss and keep moving forward. The front office didn’t want to pay Gardner-Johnson so they shipped him for a player Houston was done with and ready to move on from.
While it may not seem like big deal on the surface, this failure by Roseman and the Eagles could provide a glimmer of hope to the rest of the league showing that Philly does have weaknesses. Green was supposed to be another addition to this offensive line that made the “tush-push” famous. Instead, he’ll become just a footnote in the book of the Eagles 2025 season.