Slay to the Birds, Eagles Land Top Corner After All
Oh my god it looks like Howie finally woke up. After the reports on the signing of Javon Hargrave, it got pretty quiet regarding free agent rumors for the Eagles. The corner market started to dry up after Chris Harris Jr signed with the Chargers and the Lions inked Desmond Trufant. The Trufant signing looked like a move to replace Slay who has been open about wanting to be traded and didn’t hold back after the signing, making it very clear he wanted out of Detroit via a few tweets.
Late last night our dearly beloved Josina Anderson, who somehow still has the insight on everything going down with the Eagles, reported that there were ongoing discussions regarding a three year extension between Darius Slay and the Eagles, with a trade in place to send him over. That deal came to fruition this morning, per Adam Schefter, the Eagles are sending a third and fifth round pick in 2020 to the Lions for Slay. Right after the trade details came out it was announced the Eagles had signed Slay to a three year $50 million dollar extension, with $30 million guaranteed. This extension puts his average annual value at $16.67 million, slightly higher than Byron Jones’ big deal, now the highest for a corner in the league. This move does come as a little surprise considering Howie’s unwillingness to trade draft capital and then sign that player to a large extension, ex. Jalen Ramsey and Deandre Hopkins. Solidifying the secondary after letting Malcolm Jenkins walk was now a top priority and the Eagles got their man.
Reports of the Lions and Eagles being in talks regarding a Slay trade have been coming out since before last seasons trade deadline. It looks like Slay has been Howie and the Eagles top choice to bring in at corner for a while now. Bringing in an elite corner in Slay, something the Eagles have lacked for what seems like forever now, was a must have for this defense.
HowieSzn has finally struck and let’s all pray this keeps rolling into draft season and the Eagles can go grab their guy at receiver.