Nick Sirianni explains Eagles, Dennard Wilson separartion, Howie discusses Jalen Hurts
The only constant in the NFL is the fact that everything will change at some point. Long before the most recent free-agency frenzy and before the Philadelphia Eagles qualified for the most recent Super Bowl, we knew the team we got to know between September of 2022 and February of 2023 would change. We were right as this team has replaced players, both their offensive and defensive coordinators, and position coaches. One of the big surprises was the mutual decision made by the BIrds and Dennard Wison to separate.
Some believed Wilson had a chance at replacing Jonathan Gannon as the team’s defensive coordinator. Philly gave the job to Sean Desai, and Wilson is no longer on the staff. He’s now the Baltimore Ravens’ defensive backs coach.
There haven’t been any official statements made about what happened, at least not until now. Tuesday, March 28th, at the NFL Annual Meeting, head coach Nick Sirianni, though slightly vague, provided a few.
Here’s what Nick Sirianni said about the Dennard Wilson/Eagles separation and Howie Roseman’s explanation of what transpired during C.J. Gardner Johnson’s negotiation.
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni hung out with the media during the NFC coach’s breakfast at the NFL Annual Meeting. On the subject of Dennard Wilson, here’s what he said.
"As we went to fill out the staff and get the new defensive coordinator, we (talked to) a lot of different people. Dennard was one of those guys that we interviewed and because he had a lot of good ideas (and because) he’s a great football coach. At the end of the day, we both obviously mutually parted ways. Dennard is in a good situation. It isn’t that anything happened. We obviously loved our time with him. The players feel very strongly about Dennard (and) how good of a football coach he is. I feel (strongly) about how good of a football coach he is. It was just best, in that way, that we both parted ways there in that situation, but (we) wish him nothing but the best."
It feels like it’s been a month since C.J. Gardner-Johnson left Philly to join the Detroit Lions. Drama and random tweets that are deleted later are much of the reason why, but as we all know, it hasn’t been that long at all.
Coach Sirianni’s most recent media sitdown was preceded by that of Philly’s vice president/general manager, Howie Roseman. That conversation came on Monday.
He discussed everything from James Bradberry and Darius Slay’s return to Philly’s transition from Jonathan Gannon to Sean Desai, but let’s talk about the hot topics, the “pivot” from C.J. and that deal with a certain quarterback that set the NFL on fire this past season.
On Gardner-Johnson’s exit, Howie stated the following.
"I think that when you go back to the start of free agency, we talked to his representatives about bringing him back here, and we also talked about the fact that we have limited resources. It’s no secret that sometime relatively soon we want to extend our quarterback, so our roster building is going to turn a little bit from a quarterback on a rookie deal to a quarterback hopefully on a long-term deal, not that we have anything done or anything but obviously our goal is to keep Jalen here for a long time."
Here’s more:
"At some point, you run out of resources. We were very clear that at some point we were going to have to go in a different direction. Those first couple of days, we tried (to bring Gardner-Johnson back) and then we pivoted. I think that’s one of the most important things in free agency. You can go in with a plan but you have to be able to pivot and have other options and not get stuck with nothing, so I think at that point, that’s where we went, and when we pivoted that was kind of where it ends."
Here are a few nuggets on that Jalen Hurts extension that we’re all waiting on as well as his thoughts on whether or not there should be any urgency to get a deal done with Hurts before other eligible quarterbacks like Joe Borrow and Justin Herbert get their deals done.
"At the end of the day we’re not looking to do anything other than what’s fair for us and fair for our players. I think that dynamic about what everyone else is doing, we have to do what’s best for us. I don’t know that we necessarily spend a lot of time thinking about when we’re doing it based on other teams. We want to do things based on our time."
QB1 is set to earn $4.78 million in 2023. He represents $485,486 in dead cap money if you are interested. We aren’t. We know he’s going to be an Eagle long-term, but in terms of the contract breakdown for the coming season, here’s what you’re looking at.
His base salary is $4.2 million. He’ll be paid a signing bonus of $485,486. He gets a workout bonus of $100,000. Don’t be shocked when that massive deal is announced. As a legitimate MVP-level quarterback, he has earned it. Stay tuned as no one has any clear answers on when said deal will be announced.
