The Philadelphia Eagles just… released Fletcher Cox

Wow, I certainly didn’t see this one coming.

On a day that was supposed to be all about the formal introduction of Haason Reddick via a 3:15 pm introductory press conference, Howie Roseman pulled double duty and opted to release the Philadelphia Eagles‘ second-longest tenured player, Fletcher Cox, mere minutes before $18 million of his contract became guaranteed.

… see what I mean? For the first time since April 26th, 2012, Cox isn’t a member of the Eagles and that, my friends, is certainly something.

Now granted, the news, initially reported by NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo, does come with a pretty big caveat. Just because the Eagles opted to release Cox with a post-June 1st distinction, a move that frees up $2.12 million in cap space versus $12.82 million in dead cap, according to Over the Cap, doesn’t mean the Birds won’t bring back their premier defensive tackle but after being linked to more than a few potential trades this offseason, it’s pretty incredible to see the six-time Pro Bowler outright released and allowed to sign wherever he’d please.

The post-Fletcher Cox era of Philadelphia Eagles football might just be upon us.

When Fletcher Cox was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles, there was no guarantee he’d be an All-Decade-level contributor. Selected 12th overall, one pick behind Memphis product Dontari Poe, Cox entered the Eagles’ starting lineup as a rookie under fan-favorite defensive coordinator Juan Castillo and remained a stalwart of Philadelphia’s pass rush under Billy Davis, Jim Schwartz, and most recently Jonathan Gannon.

Whether tasked with playing defensive tackle in a 4-3 alongside the likes of Timmy Jernigan, Malik Jackson, or Javon Hargrave or lined up at defensive end in a 3-4 alongside Bennie Logan and Cedric Thorton, Cox quickly established himself as one of the most dominant pocket collapsers in the NFL, with an innate ability to envelop would-be blockers on his way to the quarterback. He was first named to the AP’s All-Pro second-team in 2014 and would become a fixture of achievement awards from that point on, landing two more spots on the second-team All-Pro list in 2015 and 2017, a spot on the first-team All-Pro list in 2018, a spot on the All-Decade Team for the 2010s, and six-straight trips to the Pro Bowl from 2015-20.

In 2017, Howie Roseman made Cox the first $100 million defensive player in Eagles history when he locked up the Mississippi State product on a six-year, $103 million extension, and while that contract started to age poorly as Cox’s production began to decline in 2021, it’s hard to see the team winning the Super Bowl in February of 2018 without 91 manning the middle of the defense.

If this really is the last we see of Cox in midnight green, the memory of that fateful float ride down Broad Street will be the one I cherish most.

Has Fletcher Cox played like Fletcher Cox recently? No. As good as he’s been over the years, those “special plays” fans became accustomed to over the years have become fewer and further between, with Javon Hargrave now serving as the team’s best defensive tackle. But goodness, it will certainly be weird to see a player many assumed would go down as a Philadelphia Eagles lifer based on the un-tradeability of his contract alone line up on the opposite side of the field, staring down Jalen Hurt and Jason Kelce pre-snap.