Eagles are releasing cornerback Darius Slay, NFL sources say
Slay, 34, had one year remaining on his contract. A source said his release will be designated as a post-June 1 cut, providing the team $4.3 million in salary-cap savings for the 2025 season.
The Eagles are releasing Darius Slay, league sources confirmed Monday to The Inquirer.
Slay, 34, has one year remaining on his contract that was set to carry a $13.8 million salary-cap hit in 2025, according to Over the Cap. A league source also confirmed that Slay’s release will be designated as a post-June 1 cut, providing the team $4.3 million in cap savings for the 2025 season.
Over the course of his five seasons with the Eagles as a starting outside cornerback, Slay earned three consecutive Pro Bowl nods (2021-23) and helped the team to his first career Super Bowl win this year. In 2024, Slay led the league’s No. 1 pass defense with 13 pass breakups, marking his third straight season of 13 or more passes defended.
Last month, at 34 years and 39 days old, Slay became the fifth-oldest cornerback to start a Super Bowl. In his sixth postseason run, the native of Brunswick, Ga., mustered some of the best playoff performances of his career, finishing with an interception (in the wild-card round against the Green Bay Packers) and five total pass breakups.
Slay is a 12-year veteran who spent the first seven years of his career with the Detroit Lions before his 2020 trade to the Eagles. He had said earlier this year that he wants to play one more season in the NFL, with the Eagles or another team.
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“I don’t want to [leave the Eagles],” Slay said in January. “But if I wanted to do 13, if it’s got to be somewhere else, it will be. But I don’t want to. I’d love to stay here, do my last year here, for sure. ‘Cause I ain’t doing no other than 13.”
On the St. Brown Podcast two weeks ago, Slay told Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown and his brother Equanimeous St. Brown of the New Orleans Saints that the two teams he would always love to play for are the Eagles and the Lions. Slay, whom the Lions selected in the second round, No. 36 overall out of Mississippi State in the 2013 draft, earned three Pro Bowl selections and one All-Pro nod during his tenure in Detroit.
With his release, Slay will become an unrestricted free agent at the start of the new league year on March 12 and will be free to sign with any club. A return to the Eagles isn’t off the table, according to an NFL source, if Slay is open to taking a pay cut. It wouldn’t be his first time. Ahead of the 2023 new league year, the Eagles were set to release Slay, but the two sides agreed to a last-minute restructured deal that lowered his annual cap hit.
The Eagles had also been in a similar spot with Fletcher Cox in 2022. The All-Pro defensive tackle was released at the start of the new league year to clear cap space. He re-signed with the team two days later on a one-year deal.
However, if Slay decides to sign elsewhere, the Eagles could go in a variety of directions to identify his replacement opposite Quinyon Mitchell.
The Eagles could opt to bring back Isaiah Rodgers, their top backup outside cornerback in 2024 who is set to become an unrestricted free agent. The 27-year-old Rodgers appeared in 15 regular-season games (three starts) and all four playoff contests. He made a number of notable defensive plays, including a 40-yard return on a fumble recovery in the divisional round against the Los Angeles Rams.
Kelee Ringo, the Eagles’ 2023 fourth-round pick out of Georgia, could also compete for the starting spot. The 22-year-old cornerback played 11% of the defensive snaps in 2024, seeing playing time on defense as an inside defender in dime packages.
Cooper DeJean could be a candidate to move to the outside, which is where he spent the bulk of his college career at Iowa. However, after he had a strong rookie season at nickel corner in which he was a finalist for the Associated Press defensive rookie of the year award, the team may prefer to keep DeJean in the slot.
If his time with the franchise is over, Slay leaves behind a legacy as one of the top cornerbacks to suit up for the Eagles. Upon his trade to Philadelphia in 2020, Slay provided stability at a position that had experienced plenty of turnover over the course of a decade and a half. He played in 74 games for the Eagles, which ranks second among franchise cornerbacks since 1999.
In that span, Slay posted 56 pass breakups (sixth among Eagles cornerbacks since ‘99) and nine interceptions (sixth), including two interceptions returned for touchdowns.
Staff writers EJ Smith and Jeff McLane contributed to this article.