Corner Avonte Maddox, who’s missed 29 games the last four years, has been released by the Eagles, a league source said, confirming a report by ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
The move was not a surprise.
Maddox, 27, has been a very good slot when healthy, but those healthy games have become less and less frequent.
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He missed six games in 2020 with an ankle injury, played just nine games in 2022 thanks to ankle, knee and toe injuries and then was limited to four games last year after undergoing surgery to repair a torn pectoral in September. He came back for the last few games of the season but wasn't close to 100 percent.
With Maddox out most of the year, the Eagles found themselves in deep trouble trying to settle on an inside cornerback, and they never did.
Maddox signed a three-year, $22.5 million extension in November 2021 with $13.3 million guaranteed. He had one year left on that deal with a $6.85 million base salary and a $9.676913 million cap figure, according to OverTheCap.
If the Eagles released Maddox with a post-June 1 designation – and it's not clear yet whether they did – he would count about $1.96 million against their 2024 cap and then about $5.76 million against their 2025 cap. If they didn’t designate him post-June 1, he would count about $7.72 million in dead money this year. That would be about a $2 million savings with no dead money beyond this season.
Philadelphia Eagles
Maddox was a 4th-round pick in the Eagles’ outstanding 2018 draft class, which even without picks in the first, third or fifth rounds brought them Dallas Goedert, Maddox, Josh Sweat and Jordan Mailata.
He became an immediate contributor as a rookie, starting nine games and picking off two passes. He only had two more interceptions over the next five years. He played 64 games in an Eagles uniform, starting 38. Maddox and Jalen Mills are the only corners the Eagles have drafted in the last 20 years to start at least 30 games as Eagles.
But even with the Eagles’ question marks in the slot going into the offseason, his high salary and frequent injuries made him a likely roster cut.
With Jason Kelce retiring, Maddox getting released, Fletcher Cox and Brandon Graham unsigned and facing uncertain futures and Boston Scott also unsigned, the only players who are under contract who were here in 2018 are Lane Johnson, Jake Elliott, Rick Lovato, Goedert, Sweat, Mailata and Greg Ward.
What’s the plan in the slot?
Eli Ricks played 144 of his 301 defensive snaps in the slot last year and for an undrafted rookie showed some promise. Zech McPhearson, who began the summer as Maddox’s backup, will be healthy after missing all of last year with a torn Achilles. Sydney Brown played 141 of his 335 defensive snaps in the slot but could be out several weeks into the regular season after suffering a torn ACL the last day of the regular season.
Mid-year acquisition Bradley Roby played 316 slot snaps but wasn’t playing much by the end of the season and is an impending free agent. Mario Goodrich got some run in the slot early but it didn’t go particularly well.
“We gave some guys opportunities to do it,” Howie Roseman said at the combine. “I've got to do a better job of bringing in more guys to be able to play that position.”
And that’s probably the plan, to target an inside corner either in the draft or free agency, although it’s possible the Eagles would re-sign Maddox to a significantly smaller contract loaded with playing-time incentives in case he gets hurt again. Schefter tweeted that the two sides will continue negotiations.
But even if they do bring him back, the Eagles still have to allocate some resources to what's essentially become a starting position because of Maddox's injury history.
Maddox is the second defensive back the Eagles have cut ties with in the past week. They released starting safety Kevin Byard on Friday.