On March 19th 2020, the Eagles traded a 3rd and a 4th round pick for Slay. The move turned out to be one of the best in Howie Roseman’s career. Period. Since the day he was traded, Slay has been a solidified starting number one corner for the Eagles. But as of March 10th, 2023 it seems it might be the Eagles this time trading Slay. A report by Espn’s Dianna Rousinni revealed that the Eagles have formally allowed Slay’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, to seek a trade with another team amidst what appears to be extension talks.
It’s disappointing to hear the news that Slay is asking for an extension when he’s still under contract. Not because he doesn’t deserve it or he’s somehow being selfish as a player, but because his Agent is Drew Rosenhaus, who is notorious for getting his players the best money. At this moment it seems the Eagles are stuck with choosing between extending him or trading him with no inbetween. I could perhaps be misreading the situation, but if I’m not, I’d rather get rid of Slay than extend him.
Slay is a great player, who is coming off two straight elite seasons in coverage. However, I have my doubts on whether or not Slay will perform at the same level in the future. To begin with, Slay’s play dropped off from the first half of the season to the back half of the season. I worry that this is not just the variance and nature of playing CB in the NFL, but that it’s legitimate regression with old age. See at the cornerback position in particular, it’s much better to move on from a player one year early than it is one year late. And at a relatively old age at his position at 32, we could see a fall off occur.
In my opinion, it’s too risky to extend a cornerback as old as Slay when we’ve potentially already seen him regress in the back half of 2022. On the other hand, there is a chance that the secondary could get really grim without Slay, Bradberry, and Gardner Johnson. Whether the Eagles extend Slay or trade him, will be a fascinating development. If they trade him, Howie will seemingly have learned from his mistakes after 2017 where he signed a lot of veterans on the back of a super bowl run, which I hope he has. The events after that in looking for a corner in free agency and/or the draft, will be at the top of every Philadeplhia fan’s priority list.