On Sunday, safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson -- one of the top available free agents this year -- accepted a one-year contract with the Lions. Could Gardner-Johnson have remained with the Eagles?
Apparently, yes.
Here’s a tweet from Reuben Frank of NBC Sports Philadelphia: “I’m told the Eagles did indeed make an offer at the start of free agency, but it wasn’t what C.J. wanted, and he turned it down, and by the time he realized he had misjudged the market, the Eagles had moved onto other priorities. So he signed for less with Detroit.”
Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer made a similar observation. The Eagles made a multi-year offer. Gardner-Johnson wanted more. The Eagles allocated their resources toward re-signing cornerback James Bradberry and working out a new deal with cornerback Darius Slay.
The Eagles will undoubtedly tiptoe around the situation. But, yes, this is what happens when a top free agent ends up taking a one-year deal. He passed on one or more multi-year offers when he expected more, one or more teams burned through their budgets on other players, and by the end of the first week of free agency, the money that previously was on the table is gone forever.
The Eagles might not be the only team that offered Gardner-Johnson more on a long-term deal than what he accepted from the Lions. Regardless, Gardner-Johnson is hardly the first, and hardly the last, to want more than the market would bear, and to eventually settle for something far less than he wanted on a one-year deal that gives him a chance to accept the best long-term offer a team will make in 2024.
