The Eagles made the Super Bowl with safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson in the lineup in 2022 and they won it after bringing him back in 2024, but those results didn't stop the team from trading Gardner-Johnson to the Texans this month.
General Manager Howie Roseman had his first chance to discuss the trade, which included a pick swap and sent guard Kenyon Green to Philly, when he spoke to reporters at the league meetings on Monday. Roseman said that Gardner-Johnson did a great job for the team, but that he had to look at the number of young starters that are on the roster and coming up on new contracts when making decisions about retaining veterans.
“Every dollar that you spend is a dollar less that you can spend on some of these younger players that maybe you want to retain,” Roseman said, via Dave Zangaro of NBCSportsPhiladelphia.com. “Getting out in front of it was important to us. And again, hard decisions. Not asking anyone to agree with them but that's part of our job.”
Roseman's success in the draft is a big reason why the Eagles are the current Super Bowl champions, but it comes with a price and it comes with making the kind of tough calls that lead to the departures of good players because of what's coming down the road.
