Last week, Eagles General Manager Howie Roseman referred to wide receiver Alshon Jeffery as the “elephant in the room,” a nod toward his injury, bad contract, and reported desire to be traded.
As it turns out, Roseman has been trying to move that elephant for some time.
According to Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Roseman began shopping Jeffery in trade about a month after a contract restructuring which guaranteed $11.5 million of his 2020 salary, which bought the Eagles some cap space).
That kind of immediate buyer’s remorse for a contract is rare (And he probably should have called Bill O’Brien immediately, and gotten J.J. Watt and DeAndre Hopkins in return for Jeffery and a seventh-round pick).
But as the season wore on, things got worse, as Jeffery’s play slipped, and he suffered a Lisfranc injury which required surgery. There was also the implication that he was the source of some negative comments about the team to ESPN.
Jeffery’s practically untradeable now, at least until the fall when his foot recovered to the point he’d pass a hypothetical physical (and it’s all hypothetical at the moment), so if they want to move on, they’ll likely just have to release him. (Unless Bill O’Brien calls.)