Lost in a flurry of moves on Monday was the news that the Eagles are moving on from veteran offensive lineman Stefen Wisniewski.
The Eagles will not pick up Wisniewski’s option for the 2019 season, a league source confirmed to NBC Sports Philadelphia. NFL Network first reported the news.
With this decision, the Eagles will save $3 million of cap room and will leave just over $700,000 in dead money. For that reason, it’s not very surprising the Eagles are moving on.
But as Brandon Brooks recovers from a torn Achilles and subsequent surgery, there was a thought the Eagles would be willing to keep Wiz around with a $3.7 million cap figure as some insurance. Perhaps the Eagles are confident based on Brooks’ recovery so far. He did get his walking boot removed on Monday, but they can’t know yet if he’ll be ready for the opener.
Or perhaps they’re confident in Matt Pryor, who was a late-round pick but is now their top backup guard without Wisniewski and with Chance Warmack set to become a free agent.
Wisniewski, 29, signed with the Eagles before the 2016 season and took over as the starter at left guard in 2017 after Isaac Seumalo lost the job. From there, Wiz was the starting left guard for the entire Super Bowl run and even began the 2018 season as the starting left guard.
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But Wiz got four games into the 2018 season before the Eagles put Seumalo back into the starting role. Even when Seumalo got hurt during the year and the Eagles found success with Wiz again, the Eagles still went back to Seumalo, whom they drafted in the third round. This offseason, they signed Seumalo to a three-year extension.
Throughout his time in Philly, Wisniewski was never shy about his desire to be a starter. Before coming to Philly, he played in 77 career games with 77 career starts. He ended up starting just 24 of 46 games in his three years in Philadelphia. And when he was benched in 2018, he said he thought he was playing well and had some theories on why he was benched, but elected to keep them to himself.
Once he hits the open market on Wednesday, there’s a good chance he’ll find a team to make him a starter again.
Because the Eagles didn’t cut him — they are choosing to not pick up his option — Wisniewski will count toward the compensatory formula if he signs a big enough deal.
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