Report: Eagles DE Chris Long is considering retirement, why the Eagles need him to play one more year
21 March 2018 Eagles News
Reports of the Eagles restructuring Chirs Long’s contract, rewarding him with more guaranteed money broke this morning. However, after further development, Long has yet to sign the new contract and is actually considering retirement.
This is that new contract the Eagles gave Long.
Sources: the Eagles re-did the contract of DE Chris Long, guaranteeing him $3M this season. His base salary jumped to $2.5M guaranteed (from $1M non-guaranteed), with the team eliminating his $750k in per-game roster bonuses & $750k in incentives. Doing a good player a solid.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) March 21, 2018
Right now, Long has not signed that deal and is thinking about retiring instead of playing this season. But, for the Eagles sake, they need Long to play another year, unless they plan on drafting a defensive end with their first-round pick. You can see Long’s concerns, the Eagles just brought in Michael Bennett, but they did just lose Vinny Curry. Even with Bennett, the rotation should remain the same.
He just completed his tenth season in the league and he has had a great career, he is a two time Super Bowl champion and this past season for the Eagles he made countless big plays for the Eagles especially down the stretch. He was a big-time player on and off the field for the Eagles, one they would not like to lose at this time. After losing Brent Celek, Beau Allen, Trey Burton and Vinny Curry, the Eagles really do not want to lose another guy who was as important on the field for the Eagles as off the field. All these players helped the team tremendously on and off the field. They were great guys to have in the locker room.
But, football is a sport both mental and physical and if Long feels it is time to call it quits, he’d be going out a back to back Super Bowl champion. It would be a pretty big blow to the Eagles as their defensive line rotation takes a bit of a hit, but for some, the timing to retire is just right.
Adding Long to the Eagles helped them get that atmosphere you saw last season in the locker room. Without a doubt, his presence would be hugely missed by the rest of the team. It is a long season and a player that brings that energy to the team is vastly underrated.
For the Eagles sake, they really need to convince him to stay just one more year. That would give Derek Barnett one more season to develop more and one more season with the man, Chris Long. He was a huge addition to the team last year and would be a big loss to the team this season.