On Monday, the Philadelphia Eagles decided they needed to open up a roster spot to sign Nick Gates from the practice squad to the active roster so that they could also have two temporary elevations to use on Parris Campbell and E.J. Jenkins. In order to open that spot for Gates, the team waived 2021 seventh-round draft pick Patrick Johnson.
On Tuesday, Johnson was claimed off waivers by the New York Giants. The Giants were sixth overall in the claiming order, which mirrors the previous NFL Draft order for the first three weeks of the season.
One would imagine that Giants assistant general manager Brandon Brown, who spent time in the Eagles’ scouting department from 2017-2021, played a role in New York claiming Johnson.
On one hand, it’s not like the Eagles losing Johnson is the end of the world. He played zero defensive snaps in Week 1. He’s played just 362 defensive snaps over 49 career games, logging zero sacks and three quarterback hits.
But Johnson has at least been a reliable special teams contributor over the years with 892 snaps played on that unit. He ranked third on the Eagles in special teams tackles in 2023, when the Eagles were the No. 1 ranked ST unit by DVOA.
And so to lose Johnson, who also showed some pass rushing juice this preseason, to a division rival doesn’t seem ideal. Especially when there are other moves they could’ve made to avoid this from happening. Did they really need to keep Byron Young around as a sixth defensive tackle who’s been a healthy scratch since joining the team? Why couldn’t they cut a vested veteran like, say, Oren Burks, who isn’t subject to waivers and then bring them back on the practice squad?
It didn’t seem like there was a need to risk losing Johnson. But the Eagles did.
