Eagles news: Thielen’s disinterest in Dallas, Lions introduce Gardner-Johnson
At the time of this story’s release, we’re approaching 48 hours since the Philadelphia Eagles and C.J. Gardner-Johnson went their separate ways. The news of Justin Evans’ addition is still fresh, and while that seems like the more important story now, we just can’t put C.J. in the ‘old news’ category. That one still gives us much to talk about even if we’re beginning to repeat some of the details.
Sure, we’ve done that. Who are we kidding though? We have some free time on our hands, and even though Justin Evans has been added, we can’t get the addition of C.J. off of our minds. The story is just too fascinating to stop talking about. On Monday, he landed in the Motor City.
Eagles news: C.J. Gardner-Johnson meets with the Detroit media.
We, like everyone else, keep asking ourselves questions about this one. We can’t stop discussing the fact that there was interest from Philly (and seemingly a desire by the Birds to move on from Darius Slay).
We can’t stop thinking about the fact that, in the time that it takes to snap one’s fingers or say ‘Fly Eagles Fly’, all of that seemingly changed.
After discussing Slay’s possible release, the Eagles ‘desire’ to extend Gardner-Johnson, and how everything turned upside down in a week (Slay got the deal, and C.J. is gone), one can’t help but arrive at the same conclusions and re-explore some of the biggest talking points that came out of this one.
We turn on Philly sports talk radio. They’re talking about the same thing.
C.J. was indeed offered a deal. He thought he deserved more than what he would be earning, and after learning the interested members of his market weren’t willing to pay his asking price, he posted tweets and deleted them, he and Philly parted ways, and the money the Birds intended to give to him seemingly was used to hang on to Darius Slay… or Fletcher Cox… or maybe, in some ways, both of them.
Less than 24 hours after being added by the Lions, C.J. met with members of the Detroit media for the first time. Naturally, his departure from the City of Brotherly Love was one of the topics of discussion.
"I have no bad blood. People overreact to a tweet in free agency, but it was never disrespectful to the organization. The organization treated me like family. It’s just, (you) gotta do what’s best for your family."
Those were the words of Detroit’s new safety. Check out the full presser below. Thank the Lions’ official YouTube channel for the clip.
With that being said, we move on… finally. It will be interesting to see how Philly handles its linebacker corps.
NFC East news: Adam Thielen decides against joining the Dallas Cowboys because Carolina can “win a Super Bowl”.
Spring has sprung. We’re a long way from the dawn of another Eagles football season, but by the looks of things, we may be discussing the NFC East coming down to the Dallas Cowboys and Philly again.
We aren’t quite ready to buy into the New York Giants being a legitimate contender and can’t see why anyone else would. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Dallas has been busy. After announcing that they would place the franchise tag on Tony Pollard on March 6th, they announced the release of Ezekiel Elliott on March 15th while simultaneously inking Leighton Vander Esch to a two-year extension. They also did what the Eagles have been doing. They began locking up a lot of old guys.
Dallas traded a fifth-round draft choice in 2023 to land Stephon Gilmore. 2023 5th-round and 2024 6th-round selections were traded to the Texans to acquire Brandin Cooks. That came one day before Dallas lost Dalton Schultz to the Texans. Cooks turns 30 in September.
Dallas also agreed to terms with offensive tackle Tyron Smith (March 15th). They re-signed cornerback C.J. Goodwin to a one-year contract (March 17th) and re-signed quarterback Cooper Rush to a two-year extension (March 17th).
Dallas also attempted to land Adam Thielen before going all in on Cooks, but Thielen agreed to join the Carolina Panthers. Why? Get this. In his mind, Carolina is where he needed to be if he wanted a good chance of reaching a Super Bowl.
Take a look.
New #Panthers WR Adam Thielen says on @PatMcAfeeShow that he also had conversations with the #Cowboys and #Broncos before choosing Carolina.
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) March 20, 2023
Thielen says he strongly believes the Panthers could win a Super Bowl.
Let that sink in for a second, and you’ll learn while we’re smiling. Those of you that didn’t get the joke will no doubt have the punchline sink in later. Don’t worry. We’ll wait.
