Few cornerbacks in Philadelphia Eagles history have walked in and had the impact that Darius Slay has put forth over the last five years with the team.
Before arriving in a trade during the 2020 offseason, the Eagles had been a historically struggling back-end with failed free agents, draft picks, and trades all crashing out after a couple of seasons.
In the five years since Slay has arrived for a third-round pick, though, the Eagles have had the top pass defense in two of those seasons.
So even though the Eagles released the Pro Bowl cornerback this week in an expected move by everyone (even the player), Slay isn't holding any grudges here.
"It is part of the business, and, nah, I'm not hurt about it," Slay said. "I'm not sad about it because this is what I signed up for. I knew I gave that team everything I had, the organization everything I had. So, it's always a possibility, though, of your boy coming back. It's not always throw it in the back, but this time I'm just thankful enough that I could get ahead of free agency if I find me a good destination for myself.
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"But hopefully, you know, we'll see how the Eagles do. If the Eagles do something nice, they know I'd love to be back. They know that, they know that, and I understand how this game is. Teams get younger. Teams want to save cap space because they pay younger guys for their future. And that's why I said there are no hard feelings."
Philadelphia has plenty of players that can act as depth for Slay at this point including a draft pick in Kelee Ringo and a pending free agent in Isaiah Rodgers who is younger.
And while Slay's impact may be extremely difficult to replace, the business of the NFL has left the Eagles no choice. And an amicable split seems to be the solution at this point.
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This story was originally published March 6, 2025 at 9:00 PM.