How Eagles' CJ Gardner-Johnson sent message on free agency via Twitter

The tweet from Chauncey Gardner-Johnson lasted for about five minutes Wednesday morning before he deleted it and added another tweet that said, “Going back to sleep.”

But Gardner-Johnson’s comment taking a shot at former Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon was out there long enough for screenshots and retweets, preserving his thoughts for eternity, or until free agency starts March 15.

Gardner-Johnson, the Eagles’ safety, was responding to a video of Gannon answering a question at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis about what went wrong for the Eagles defensively at the Super Bowl.

Gannon began his answer by saying, “We weren’t able to get some stops when we needed to.”

Gardner-Johnson then retweeted the video, with a comment: “You ain’t put us in position to make plays.” He added the shoulder shrug emoji.

But it’s not as simple as a shoulder shrug.

Not when the Eagles have seven starters on defense who could be eligible for free agency in two weeks. That includes Gardner-Johnson after a season in which he tied for the NFL lead in interceptions with six despite missing five games with a lacerated kidney.

It’s not known how Eagles general manager Howie Roseman and head coach Nick Sirianni reacted to Gardner-Johnson’s tweet because they had spoken to the media at the combine on Tuesday, before the tweet was posted.

But Roseman and Sirianni certainly aren’t oblivious to the fact that some players were not thrilled with Gannon’s defense.

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After all, Roseman and Sirianni did hold exit interviews with every player once the Eagles returned from their 38-35 loss in the Super Bowl to the Kansas City Chiefs, when the Eagles didn’t stop Kansas City at all in the second half. And Roseman will most likely find time at the combine to meet with the agents of some, if not all, of the pending free agents.

In addition, the Eagles did hire a defensive coordinator in Sean Desai from outside the organization when they could have easily promoted defensive backs coach Dennard Wilson.

Perhaps a new voice was necessary if the Eagles want to bring some of their more prominent free agents back, such as Gardner-Johnson, cornerback James Bradberry and either defensive tackles Fletcher Cox and/or Javon Hargrave.

“Are we going to get all the free agents back? We’re just not,” Roseman said at the combine. “We’re not capable of getting all those guys back.”

Gardner-Johnson wasn’t the first player to complain publicly about Gannon. Cox did so midway through the 2021 season, after the Eagles fell to 2-5, when he said, “I don’t get paid to play screens.”

Sure, Cox was happy, or happier, this season. He had seven sacks, his most since 2018, and he loved being in a rotation with veterans Javon Hargrave, Ndamukong Suh and Linval Joseph, not to mention young players in Milton Williams and rookie Jordan Davis.

But did Cox really change his approach to read-and-react as Gannon wanted? Or did he just continue to go after the quarterback because he was playing less? Cox played 65% of the snaps, his lowest since his rookie year in 2012.

Clearly, the Eagles’ defense under Gannon was a smashing success this season, the Super Bowl notwithstanding.

The Eagles ranked second overall defensively, allowing 302 yards per game. They were first against the pass, allowing just 180 yards per game. They finished with 70 sacks, two short of tying the all-time record set by the 1984 Chicago Bears.

And it wasn’t the pass that burned the Eagles in the Super Bowl. After all, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes threw for just 182 yards after throwing for an NFL-leading 5,250 yards in the regular season.

Then again, Mahomes’ last two touchdown passes, both in the fourth quarter, came from the Eagles’ 5-yard line and 4-yard line, and both receivers were wide open.

This is where Gannon, in Gardner-Johnson’s words, didn’t put the Eagles “in position to make plays.”

So perhaps Roseman and Sirianni knew that in order to keep some of the free agents, a change was needed at defensive coordinator while somehow keeping the same scheme, with some adjustments.

Sirianni said Desai, who like Gannon is a Vic Fangio disciple, is being counted on to accomplish that goal.

“So not to give everything away, but what I did like is some of the similarities to the things that we do, that we’ve already been doing here on a very successful defense (but) with different coverages, different run blitzes, things like that,” Sirianni said about Desai.

But Sirianni also remarked about how he loved the “unknown” of the Eagles’ season-opening opponent not knowing exactly what the scheme will be. Desai was a defensive coordinator in Chicago in 2021, working his way up through the ranks since 2013, where he worked for Fangio for four of those seasons.

After most of Matt Nagy’s staff was fired in Chicago after the 2021 season, Desai then went to Seattle last season as a defensive assistant, learning from Pete Carroll.

Maybe that means something to Gardner-Johnson and the others.

It should be noted that the Eagles can prevent Gardner-Johnson from ever reaching free agency by placing the franchise tag on him. They have until March 7 to do so.

That would guarantee Gardner-Johnson a one-year contract of $14.5 million if he’s classified as a safety, which he primarily played last season for the Eagles. He would be guaranteed $18.1 million if he’s classified as a cornerback. He played nickel in New Orleans for three seasons before the trade last summer to the Eagles.

Guess what position Gardner-Johnson would prefer to be classified as.

Either way, Gardner-Johnson wants a long-term contract covering four or five years that will pay him in that $18 million per season range, if not higher. If Gardner-Johnson plays under the franchise tag and suffers a serious injury, he wouldn’t have any guaranteed money beyond this coming season.

Even if the Eagles do place the tag on Gardner-Johnson, they can still work out a long-term deal up until the deadline in July.

At least we know now, through a tweet that lasted for about five minutes, that Gardner-Johnson might be more inclined to work out a long-term deal under a new defensive coordinator with a fresh approach.

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How Eagles’ CJ Gardner-Johnson sent message on free agency via Twitter

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