The Philadelphia Eagles may have to make some tough decisions with the contracts of veteran players during the NFL offseason.
Philadelphia’s end-of-season skid can be attributed to many things, but one of the key factors was the lack of impressive performances from the defense.
The Eagles are not getting any younger on defense and they may be forced to move on from Darius Slay or James Bradberry in order to get better.
Slay and Bradberry will be under the most scrutiny because the Eagles secondary was the biggest weakness on the squad that crashed out in the NFC wild-card round against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Eagles must look across their entire roster to figure out which other veterans are worth keeping, or not, as they enter the 2024 season with two new coordinators and an under pressure head coach in Nick Sirianni.
Darius Slay’s contract comes with a salary cap hit of $10.9 million for the 2024 season, per Spotrac.
As of Monday, Slay would produce the seventh-highest cap hit on the Eagles roster next season. He could move up to sixth if Jason Kelce chooses to retire.
Slay and the entire Eagles secondary need a deep look after they allowed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to run all over them in the wild-card round.
Tampa Bay earned countless big plays because the Eagles failed to properly cover wide receivers and tackled poorly.
Philadelphia’s secondary allowed three 300-yard performances during the team’s 1-6 skid and that was part of a collective concession issue in which four teams posted over 400 total yards.
The Eagles need to take a hard look at their entire defensive configuration and that starts with the high-paid cornerbacks.
James Bradberry committed some more egregious mistakes than Slay in the wild-card round because he missed a few easy tackles that would have prevented some of Tampa Bay’s long plays.
Bradberry’s contract comes with a much smaller salary cap hit than Slay’s deal at $4.8 million.
Bradberry’s deal may be the easier one for the Eagles to shed if they choose to revamp their secondary depth chart.
Philadelphia has a few young cornerbacks in Eli Ricks and Josh Jobe who could take the next step in their development by starting in 2024, but that decision likely comes down to what new defensive coordinator Vic Fangio prefers.
If Bradberry stays, he will be under some of the most pressure of any Eagles player to improve in 2024 because of his shortcomings at the end of 2023.
