The 2025 offseason saw the Philadelphia Eagles say goodbye to several key contributors to their championship roster from February. Stars like cornerback Darius Slay, edge rusher Josh Sweat, and safety Chauncey Gardner-Johnson are all with new teams this season.
Despite the perception, there is a "glass half full" approach to the Eagles offseason plan.
But …
When the Eagles released Slay and former All-Pro cornerback James Bradberry, they made them both June 1st cuts. That meant that while they were free to negotiate with another team, the organization would get some needed cap relief after June 1st.
Now that the date has passed, we know exactly how much relief they have received.
Philadelphia is set to save $6.42 million with those designations - a relatively small amount, but still important for a team that will look to use all their resources to repeat as Super Bowl champions.
The fact that they had to move on from two former great corners was just a necessary result of a cap management struggle.
Slay has been a Pro Bowl player for Philadelphia since he arrived in a deal with the Detroit Lions in 2021. He had arguably his best year in 2024 where his lockdown skills helped shut down key players during the team's Super Bowl run.
While Bradberry did not have the same success as Slay had, he did enjoy a breakout campaign in 2022 that helped the Eagles reach Super Bowl LVII.
Their departures shows that the team was looking to get younger in their secondary. The fact they can save a few extra million in salary cap space will certainly help as well.