Darius Slay knew his release from the Philadelphia Eagles could happen in the days after the cornerback helped the club win a Super Bowl.
After Philly did indeed decide to cut him, the 34-year-old said on his Big Play Slay podcast that he understands it was just business. Slay also didn’t discount the possibility of a return to the Eagles.
“It is part of the business, and, nah, I’m not hurt about it,” he said. “I’m not sad about it because this is what I signed up for. I knew I gave that team everything I had, the organization everything I had. So, it’s always a possibility, though, of your boy coming back. It’s not always throw it in the back, but this time I’m just thankful enough that I could get ahead of free agency if I find me a good destination for myself.
“But hopefully, you know, we’ll see how the Eagles do. If the Eagles do something nice, they know I’d love to be back. They know that, they know that, and I understand how this game is. Teams get younger. Teams want to save cap space because they pay younger guys for their future. And that’s why I said there are no hard feelings.”
Slay noted that at his age, after 12 seasons — five in Philly, seven in Detroit — he knows that Eagles general manager Howie Roseman wanted to skew younger in the defensive backfield, with rookies Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean taking the reins.
The corner noted that the last time the Eagles made a Super Bowl run in 2022, the club discussed potentially moving on but ultimately agreed to a reworked deal that kept Slay in Philly.
“I know I’m 34. I know I’m way out of my prime but still playing at an elite, elite level,” he said. “I know me and Howie had a great talk and he said the same. It’s not that I can’t play, that’s just part of the business. He just said we’ll see how things shake out and we will. So possibly, he might spin the block back just like he did last time. And look, he [spun] the block back and a year, two years later, Super Bowl champs. So, you know what I’m saying? We’ll see.”