The Philadelphia Eagles seemed to be gearing themselves up for another Super Bowl run at the trade deadline when they pulled off a deal with the Tennessee Titans for star safety Kevin Byard. Yet the team ended up collapsing down the stretch, despite the fact that Byard played a big role at the backend of their defense.

It wasn’t his greatest season, but Byard was still a tackling machine at the safety position over 16 games with the Titans and Eagles in 2023 (122 tackles, 1 INT, 3 PD, 1 FR). It wasn’t good enough for him to keep his roster spot, though, as Philadelphia released Byard just months after picking him up in order to create some more cap space ahead of free agency.

Releasing Byard saves the Eagles $13 million, so while he’s still a good player, it’s not totally surprising to see them move on from him. Considering how the two sides weren’t able to agree to a restructured deal, it seems unlikely that he will find his way back to Philadelphia in free agency on a new deal, so teams across the league will likely be eager to pounce on the former All-Pro safety.

Byard may not be the player he once was, but he’s still a top-tier safety who can hold down the fort at the back of the defense. Philadelphia has a lot of other problems they have to solve on their roster right now, which made Byard expendable. Now that he’s a free agent it will be interesting to see which team he lands with now that his stint with the Eagles has come to a premature end.