Howie Roseman has put the Philadelphia Eagles in a really good spot this offseason. They’ve lost some key players, which stinks, but for the most part, they’re still in a positive place with their young players.
That being said, there are some things that Roseman has done this offseason that he might end up regretting. That’s what happens when you’re a general manager, though. You have to take those calculated risks, even though it might end up backfiring.
Every general manager makes decisions that they end up regretting, whether it’s choosing to do something or choosing to do nothing. I would argue that Howie Roseman actually makes fewer regrettable decisions than most general managers, especially this offseason.
Did Howie Roseman miss on the Eagles safety situation?
It’s been said over and over again, but this free agency class was not great compared to most free agency classes. The Eagles not signing anyone for huge money is a good thing because it’d be easy to overpay for a non-elite player.
We all knew guys would be leaving via free agency, but not necessarily via trade.
On Wednesday, Mar. 12, the Eagles traded C.J. Gardner-Johnson to the Texans for guard Kenyon Green. That left a big hole not just in the defensive backfield but on the defense as a whole.
Not only did CJGJ have that attitude, but it showed when he was on the field. He made the defense dangerous. We saw what happened to the defense, attitude-wise, when he left after the 2022 season.
There will probably be a younger guy that tries (and hopefully succeeds) in taking up that mantle next season, but being an instigator is tough to replicate. You have to be willing to lose a game of chicken. You have to be willing to stand your ground when a tight end comes flying at you after a play and not back down. That takes grit, and CJGJ had plenty of it.
That’s only one thing that’s tough about losing Gardner-Johnson because he was also just a really good football player. Sure, his 2024 season started a little shaky, but when he got going, he really got going.
Who can replace C.J. Gardner-Johnson? The Eagles will find it tough
The Eagles have a couple of guys that can fill that spot, but a safety in the Vic Fangio defense needs to be a special player. Sydney Brown and Lewis Cine haven’t shown that they are special players just yet. To be fair, neither of them has really had the opportunity to show a whole lot in a game yet.
The interesting part about this is that the Eagles traded CJGJ to free up some cap space so they can pay other guys. It made sense until Justin Reid signed with a new team, which muddied up the whole thing a little bit.
Reid went on the Up & Adams Show and talked about how he was close to signing with the Eagles. He said that he was between signing with two teams, the Saints and the Eagles.
Sounds like Justin Reid was very close to signing with the Eagles. 👀 @UpAndAdamsShow @JustinqReid pic.twitter.com/UhwoILgwlk
— Kay Adams (@heykayadams) March 17, 2025
He ended up signing with New Orleans for three years and $31.5 million ($10.5 million APY). He said that he and the Eagles were close to a deal, but the Birds were “limited in cap space that we couldn’t make a deal that made sense. But the situation, the conversation was happening.”
The Eagles were willing to spend at least a decent amount of money on the position, which means that they’re not totally comfortable with Brown or Cine. That’s not great.
The Eagles could look to the draft or leftovers in free agency
They can still go after a safety in the draft, but your level of confidence in a rookie safety will start dropping pretty quickly the further in the draft that you wait. The Eagles have the 32nd pick, which means they might have to trade up to get a guy like Malaki Starks from Georgia. Even that is really hit or miss.
The last good safety that the Eagles drafted was Nate Allen in 2010, and he didn’t even really break out until he was playing alongside Malcolm Jenkins in 2014.
If they don’t get a guy who they want in the draft, there are still some free-agent safeties available, most notably Justin Simmons. Simmons was an All-Pro safety in Vic Fangio's defense when they were both in Denver… but that was back in 2019… when Simmons was 26 years old. Now he’s 31, and it’s probably not a great idea for Howie Roseman to push his luck four seasons in a row with 30-year-old defensive backs.
It just seems like getting rid of Gardner-Johnson was a good process, but the results didn’t exactly pan out how the Eagles wanted them to. It could be something that comes back to bite Howie Roseman.