A Newsy Eagles Monday: Trade Talk, Carson Wentz Cut, and More

Thoughts on some Eagles news from Monday…

Trading Darius Slay was mentioned by former TV reporter Derrick Gunn on his show with Jakib Media, this is on the heels of a report elsewhere on the Eagles’ willingness to trade WR Quez Watkins.

I like outside-the-box thinking and dealing Slay is certainly in that realm, but, to me, it only makes some sense if the veteran CB does not want to restructure his contract.

Otherwise, you're weakening a position that already needs to be addressed with the expected exit of CB James Bradberry.

That said, there’s no way the Eagles can allow Slay, 32, to count $26.1 million on their salary cap. Slay is due to make $17M in base salary.

Finding a market that would give GM Howie Roseman what he would want is another issue.

What would Roseman want, anyway?

He gave up a third in the draft and a fifth to land him three years ago when Slay was 29.

Even though Slay earned the fifth Pro Bowl nod of his 10-year career, it’s hard to envision Slay commanding that type of haul in a trade.

As for Watkins, he has a cap charge of $2.78M in the final year of his rookie contract. If he is cut before June 1, the Eagles would only eat $42,415 in dead money while saving $2.7M.

For a team looking to load up to make a run at keeping Chauncey Gardner-Johnson and possibly Javon Hargrave, every penny counts.

My thought: If the Eagles don’t find any takers for Watkins, he will be cut. That doesn’t mean, however, they wouldn’t try to bring him back at a reduced number should nobody show any interest while he is free.

CLAY DEAL

So, special team coordinator Michael Clay got a year added to his contract, and a raise to boot.

After Nick Sirianni came out and endorsed Clay to return during the coach’s end-of-season press conference with GM Howie Roseman, this shouldn’t be a surprise.

Yet, it is.

Everybody who watched the Eagles play last year knows that the special team units weren’t anything special.

When Sirianni said Clay would return, my thought was, well, the Eagles already have their hands full having to replace their offensive and defensive coordinators while having to make some hard decisions on their many free agents and negotiating a contract extension for Jalen Hurts.

It’s a lot, so another year for Clay sort of kind of made sense.

Now another year with more money?

The Eagles must truly believe that a lot of their issues were personnel-related and not Clay’s schemes.

WENTZ CUT

We’re about to find out exactly how starved NFL teams are for a quarterback, after the Washington Commanders cut the former No. 2 overall pick by the Eagles in 2016, saving $26.1M on their salary cap.

Every team in the NFC South could be hungry enough to employ Carson Wentz, who, if somebody does sign him, will play for his fourth team in four years – Eagles, Colts, Commanders, and TBA.

Or, could his career at age 30 be over?

Doubtful. There will be some team that thinks he can find the key to unlock what he showed in Philly, especially in that 2017 Super Bowl season.

HURTS TRADEMARK

I was there when the Eagles QB said it in a ballroom inside the Eagles’ team hotel at Super Bowl LVII.

The quote: “I had a purpose before everybody had an opinion. It’s not about anybody else.”

I knew it was a dandy at the time, even better than some of the others Hurts has thrown out there about making daily deposits and the rent being due every month and not planning on missing any payments, etc.

Hurts knew it, too.

“I know y’all liked that one,” he added.

Hurts filed the line with trademark attorney Josh Gerben and plans on using the phrase for a clothing brand.

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglestoday.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.