Eagles Made a Mistake by Not Keeping Anthony Harris on the 53

The Eagles got younger and more athletic in the secondary on Tuesday when Howie Roseman went back to the Mickey Loomis well to acquire playmaking defensive back Chauncey Gardner-Johnson from the New Orleans Saints for pennies on the dollar.

The actual stipend for Roseman was inconsequential, a 2023 fifth-round pick and the latter of two 2024 sixth-round picks, for what Philadelphia believes is a starting safety and a 2025 seventh-round pick to boot.

The deal was universally lauded from the Eagles’ perspective and if the organization’s projection of CGJ is correct, that’s how history will record things.

In the short term, though, Philadelphia is gambling by releasing veteran starter Anthony Harris 12 days before the season-opener in Detroit.

In the cases of Harris and Jaquiski Tartt, both cost-effective veterans on the downside of lengthy careers, there was always going to be a wide berth of outcomes when it came to the Eagles' roster.

Both could have been starters against the Lions and each could have been filing for unemployment with the latter becoming the actual end game for both.

Tartt played a lot of football for a very good defense in San Francisco that is rooted in the same Vic Fangio scheme that the Eagles are using. Despite that, he reportedly had a difficult time with the terminology changes after arriving late in the offseason process, never gaining a foothold from there and was among the first to go in the cut from 80 to 53.

Harris was different, though, perhaps the most familiar player the Eagles had when it came to Jonathan Gannon’s mindset due to their time together in Minnesota.

The veteran also became a team leader and even began breaking down team huddles, including the pre-game get-together in Miami before the preseason finale despite not dressing as a so-called deference player.

And the Eagles would have been very comfortable with Harris staring Week 1 in Detroit opposite Marcus Epps had the Gardner-Johnson trade not unveiled itself.

More so, as a vested veteran, it’s not inconceivable that Harris will be brought back after the Week 1 game in Detroit as an insurance policy for Gardner-Johnson’s transition.

The bookkeeping there for veterans is that their contracts are fully guaranteed for the entire season if they are on the roster in Week 1. After that, however, it becomes piecemeal. 

In other words, if it becomes clear that Gardner-Johnson is working out the Eagles could simply release Harris at any time and not be on the hook for his full salary.

And that's the financially responsible route unless you add the context here.

Rewind back to Tartt, who played in the same type of defense for years, and couldn’t pick up the same philosophy with different labels over an entire summer yet the expectation is that Gardner-Johnson will be able to change positions in a new scheme and get it down in 10 days?

Maybe talent wins out and that’s the case or perhaps the Eagles will have to lean on the underachieving K’Von Wallace or the undrafted Reed Blankenship, along with the perceived lack of talent with the Lions, for one week in a calculated gamble.

Reports of Harris potentially being one of the veterans on the PS doesn't change that gamble.