DE Za’Darius Smith Released From Eagles’ Reserve/Retired List
Last year, veteran pass rusher Za’Darius Smith signed with the Eagles a day after the team’s season opener but only lasted five weeks in Philadelphia before announcing his midseason retirement. According to Aaron Wilson of KPRC 2, the Eagles have reportedly terminated Smith from their reserve/retired list, opening the door for the 33-year-old to make a return to the league, should he find the right situation.
Yes, Smith will be 34 years old by the start of the regular season, but he is only two seasons removed from a nine-sack 2024 season split between the Browns and Lions. At his prime, though, Smith was routinely putting up sack totals in the double-digits. After exhausting his rookie contract in Baltimore with 18.5 sacks in four years, Smith joined the Packers and delivered two Pro Bowl campaigns in three years.
In his first season with the Packers, Smith put up career highs in sacks (13.5), tackles for loss (17), and quarterback hits (37). He didn’t quite match those numbers in his second Pro Bowl season, but his 12.5 sacks, 12 tackles for loss, and 23 quarterback hits were enough to land him second-team All-Pro honors. A back injury that had bothered him all through training camp in his third year in Green Bay limited him to only one game and led to his release, but Smith rebounded in 2022 with the Vikings, giving Minnesota 10.0 sacks, 15 tackles for loss, and 24 quarterback hits en route to his third Pro Bowl season.
The Vikings traded Smith to Cleveland the next year, and after a disappointing 2023 campaign, the Browns sold high on him, trading him to Detroit before the trade deadline the next season. Smith went unsigned for the entire offseason following his half-season with the Lions, and his announcement shortly after arriving in Philadelphia came as a shock to the league.
With the Eagles releasing him from the contractual rights they retained following his retirement, Smith will now be able to seek out new opportunities and find a team that best fits his situation. A few of his former teams all oddly appear to be in need of some pass rush depth, so a reunion may be on the table.
Eagles Sign A.J. Epenesa, Michael Jordan
Several weeks after A.J. Epenesa‘s Browns deal fell through, the veteran edge rusher has found a new home. The Eagles signed the former second-round pick, per a team announcement.
Philadelphia has signed Epenesa and guard Michael Jordan. The team waived linebackers Chandler Martin and Isiah King to clear roster space. Epenesa will head to Philly after six years in Buffalo.
Epenesa, 27, had committed to the Browns in March but saw the team express concerns about his physical and back out of the agreement. The Iowa product then visited the Dolphins and Bears but will vie to become an auxiliary rush option for an Eagles team that has again seen some turnover at its edge-rushing spots.
The team lost Jaelan Phillips in free agency but belatedly replaced him by trading for Jonathan Greenard during the draft. Philadelphia has also taken fliers on Arnold Ebiketie and Joe Tryon-Shoyinka. The team released the unretired Brandon Graham, but that move may be procedural that and precede the franchise’s longest-tenured player returning. The Epenesa signing crowds Philly’s EDGE corps, with Nolan Smith and Jalyx Hunt in place as well. The Epenesa signing could also provide some insurance for the Eagles in case Graham does not re-sign.
Graham, 38, retired not long after Super Bowl LIX but agreed to come back in-season. The Eagles had just lost Za’Darius Smith to an in-season retirement. Graham then expressed interest at playing a 17th season. Already the only Eagle to play 16 years with the team, the 2010 first-round pick would seemingly factor into the organization’s supplementary EDGE situation, which would leave Ebiketie, Tryon-Shoyinka and Epenesa vying for limited playing time.
Playing well as an auxiliary Bills rusher from 2022-24, Epenesa only recorded 2.5 sacks last season. Buffalo consistently used Epenesa as a rotational cog, with Von Miller and then Gregory Rousseau anchoring the team’s pass rush. Epenesa tallied 6.5 sacks in 2022 and ’23, combining for 14 tackles for loss in those seasons. He then delivered a six-sack, eight-TFL 2024 to go with his only career safety. Epenesa does not have a sack in 14 career playoff games, and the Bills added Bradley Chubb in free agency before drafting Clemson edge rusher T.J. Parker in the second round.
The first- and second-most-famous Michael Jordans are unapproachable for the veteran O-lineman, but the enduring guard has continued to work as a starter at various stops. Brought in as a depth option by the Buccaneers last year, Jordan ended up starting nine of the 11 games he played. This came after he started 11 of 12 Patriots contests in 2024. Jordan was a 10-game Panthers starter in both 2020 and ’21, before serving as a 2022 Carolina backup and missing the 2023 season.
Jordan spent the 2023 season on the Packers’ practice squad and did not make the Pats or Bucs’ rosters out of training camp in the ensuing years. But the former Bengals fourth-rounder managed to move back onto each team’s roster for extended starter duty each year.
Pro Football Focus has never graded Jordan as a top-60 guard, but teams have continued to view him as a valuable backup. The Eagles return starters Landon Dickerson and Tyler Steen, though Dickerson considered retirement this offseason and missed time in 2025. Philly also drafted a guard in Round 6 (Micah Morris).
Eagles TE Dallas Goedert ‘Had Other Opportunities’ In Free Agency
A few days after free agency opened in March, tight end Dallas Goedert re-signed with the Eagles on a one-year, $7MM guarantee. Goedert is now poised to play a ninth straight season in Philadelphia, but the career-long Eagle heard from other teams during his brief trip to the open market.
“I was able to test free agency a little bit,” he said Tuesday (h/t: Josh Alper of PFT). “Had opportunities to go elsewhere. Nothing was a better opportunity than I thought I could have here. Being able to play in the same place for nine years is special. It would’ve had to be something really drastic to have me try to sign somewhere else.”
Just as Goedert wanted to stay in Philadelphia, it was in the team’s best interest to re-sign him. Not only did Goedert remain a key part of the Eagles’ offense in 2025, but losing him would have negatively affected their cap situation. The Eagles would have taken on $20.49MM in dead money had they failed to re-sign Goedert. Hoping to prevent that, the Eagles and Goedert agreed to push back the void date on his contract on multiple occasions. Doing so bought them enough time to hammer out a new deal.
An Eagle since they chose him in the second round of the 2018 draft, Goedert now ranks fifth in franchise history in catches (409), tied for ninth in touchdowns (35) and 14th in receiving yards (4,676). He has accumulated those numbers despite missing time in every season since 2019. The 31-year-old played 15 of 17 games in 2025 and piled up 60 catches for 591 yards and a team-leading 11 scores, which set a single-season franchise record for his position.
The Eagles are likely to lean on Goedert as an important cog in their passing attack again this year, especially after trading receiver A.J. Brown to the Patriots. They also drafted a potential heir apparent in second-rounder Eli Stowers, giving new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion and quarterback Jalen Hurts a pair of gifted pass catchers at the position. That wasn’t the case last year, as backup tight ends Grant Calcaterra and Kylen Granson combined for just 16 receptions. Calcaterra has since joined Goedert in re-signing with the Eagles, who also added blocking specialist Johnny Mundt in free agency, while Granson left for Tennessee.
WR James Proche To Participate In Eagles’ Minicamp
James Proche is among the veteran receivers still on the open market. He will spend this week attempting to land an opportunity in Philadelphia.
Proche is set to participate in the Eagles’ minicamp on a tryout basis, NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo reports. A strong showing over the next few days could land him a contract as a result. That would allow the seventh-year wideout to compete for a roster spot during training camp this summer.
A Ravens draftee in 2020, Proche spent his first three years in Baltimore. He primarily contributed on special teams during that span, including work as the team’s punt returner. The former sixth-rounder was also a regular in the return game during his two-year stint with the Browns. Proche spent last season in Tennessee, making nine appearances while handling a depth role on offense.
As expected, the Eagles executed a trade with the Patriots last week to send A.J. Brown to New England. That move was preceded by a number of receiver acquisitions which signaled Brown’s time with the team would be coming to an end. DeVonta Smith remains in place, but free agent signing Marquise Brown, trade acquisition Dontayvion Wicks and first-round rookie Makai Lemon (who is not set to return to practice until training camp) will represent new faces at the WR position for 2026. Proche, 29, will now aim to join that group.
The Eagles entered Monday with over $25MM in cap space. Any Proche signing would come in at or near the veteran minimum, so finances will not be an issue if his showings this week result in a deal being finalized.
Eagles’ Makai Lemon Suffers Hamstring Injury; Training Camp Return Expected
Makai Lemon was recently injured during spring practices. The rookie Eagles wideout is expected to be fully healthy in time for the summer, though.
Lemon is currently dealing with a soft-tissue injury, Eliot Shorr-Parks of 94 WIP reports. Teammate Quinyon Mitchell clarified (via The Athletic’s Brooks Kubena) this is a hamstring issue. Per Shorr-Parks, this year’s No. 20 pick will not participate further in OTAs. A return in time for training camp is anticipated, however.
Lemon spent the pre-draft process as one of the consensus top wideouts on the board. Carnell Tate and Jordyn Tyson were both selected in the top 10, and the Rams’ decision to take quarterback Ty Simpson 13th led to a longer-than-anticipated wait in Lemon’s case. The Steelers looked into a move up the board, but in the end the draft’s hosts remained in place at the No. 21 slot.
That opened the door for Philadelphia to swing a trade and draft Lemon 20th overall. The USC product will be counted on to operate as a key figure on offense early and often in the NFL. Lemon represents one of several new faces on an Eagles WR depth chart which has undergone a number of changes this offseason. Monday brought about the expected news of A.J. Brown being dealt from Philadelphia to New England.
With Brown no longer in the fold, DeVonta Smith will be tasked with remaining a focal point in the passing game. Meanwhile, free agent addition Marquise Brown and trade acquisition Dontayvion Wicks will serve as important options on that front as well. The same will be true of Lemon, provided he can recover in full ahead of training camp and avoid any other setbacks with respect to injuries over the coming months.
2026 will mark the beginning of the post-Brown era for Philadelphia. The team will also have a new offensive coordinator (Sean Mannion) in the fold as better consistency and efficiency is sought out. Lemon is set to miss a small portion of non-contact practices in the near term, but he should manage to carve out an important role for himself upon returning to the field as part of a revamped pass-catching group.
Myles Garrett Trade Fallout: Rams, Eagles, Carter, Browns, Verse, McCoy
The trade that sent longtime Browns defensive end Myles Garrett to the Super Bowl-hopeful Rams was a long time in the making — two months and four days, to be exact. According to Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated, that’s how long it took for negotiations between Rams general manager Les Snead and his Browns counterpart, Andrew Berry, to conclude.
This wasn’t the first time the Rams had sent an offer to Cleveland; it wasn’t even the second. Los Angeles went shopping for pass rushers around the trade deadline in 2022 and, among offers to several other teams, offered two first-round picks and a fourth-rounder for Garrett, though Berry has no interest in trading him at the time. Then, following this past season, Snead called the Browns in late March and upped the offer.
The offer purely comprising of draft capital was not going to be enough, as Cleveland made clear following the draft that Rams defensive end Jared Verse would have to be a part of any trade, but it demonstrated how serious Los Angeles was about getting a deal done.
Over the long course of these negotiations, Berry made sure to keep Garrett in the loop. Per Breer, Garrett wasn’t the only one hearing from Berry. The seventh-year GM reportedly reached out to three well-known personnel executives in other sports. St. Louis Cardinals president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom, Oklahoma City Thunder GM Sam Presti, and Pittsburgh Penguins GM Kyle Dubas were trusted for advice and expertise, especially given Bloom and Presti’s trade experience in their respective sports. The trio’s input led to the team’s insistence on getting a player — not just draft picks — in the return-side of the trade.
Before ultimately agreeing to the final terms, Jimmy Haslam and his family hosted Berry and Garrett for one last meeting to reminisce and make sure Garrett was good with how things were concluding. Garrett’s contract included a no-trade clause, so his go-ahead was a crucial part of the deal, and according to ESPN’s Sarah Barshop, it was a decision Garrett needed to “sleep on” before finally waiving the no-trade clause.
In the immediate fallout of the trade, some rumors emerged that the Eagles had been a team that expressed interest in trading for Garrett and that defensive tackle Jalen Carter was a potential trade target for Cleveland. Negating that notion, Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com reported this week that Philadelphia “never made a play” for Garrett and that “there’s zero chance they would’ve wanted (Carter) in return.”
The player the Browns did want, Verse, also had some negative feelings about being traded, not towards his new team but in regard to leaving his home of the past two seasons. After the Rams drafted Verse at No. 19 overall in 2024, Verse rewarded them with two Pro Bowl campaigns to go along with his own Defensive Rookie of the Year honors.
In his introductory news conference in Cleveland (via Andy Backstrom of Yahoo Sports), Verse told the media, “I loved LA. I loved the coaches, the organization, my teammates, everybody a part of it, the fans — I loved the whole vibe of LA, the Los Angeles Rams, and it was upsetting. I was upset for a good little bit of time.”
The last tidbit of information relayed by Breer pertains to a different trade the team performed in the offseason. Los Angeles traded its second first-round pick in this past year’s draft, the 29th overall pick, to Kansas City in a package of picks that landed them Chiefs cornerback Trent McDuffie in return. Per Breer, the Rams had interest in Tennessee cornerback Jermod McCoy at the end of the first round, but when his draft stock plummeted for medical reasons, the team pivoted and made the move for McDuffie. McDuffie and Garrett now stand as two gigantic additions to a team looking to make the most of veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford‘s last few good years.
Minor NFL Transactions: 6/5/26
Friday’s only minor moves:
New York Jets
- Waived from reserve/PUP list: C Gus Hartwig
Philadelphia Eagles
- Signed: DT Zion Wilson
- Waived: WR Brandon Hayes
The Eagles are bringing in another undrafted rookie, though Wilson didn’t go undrafted in the same way as the rest of the team’s UDFA class. Per Dave Zangaro of NBC Sports Philadelphia, Wilson had sought a sixth year of eligibility to transfer to Virginia after he didn’t appear in any games during his true and redshirt freshman seasons at East Carolina. Ultimately, his sixth-year waiver was denied by the NCAA, so he will, instead, turn to the NFL.
A.J. Brown Fallout: Roseman, Rams, Hurts
The long-awaited A.J. Brown trade between the Eagles and Patriots finally came together on Monday. Before agreeing to ship out a 2028 first-round pick and a 2027 fifth-rounder for Brown, the Patriots held out hope the Eagles would accept a package headlined by a second-rounder, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network. The sides began discussing the 2028 first-rounder about a month ago, Rapoport adds.
Eagles general manager Howie Roseman was not going to move Brown unless he got a Round 1 selection back, Zach Berman of The Athletic reports.
Speaking with the media on Monday, Roseman said: “I think that when we looked at the totality of the circumstances and having the conversations we had with him, felt like where we were, where we were going, where he was, that if we could find something that kind of achieved our goals of getting a first-round pick going forward here in the near future, getting the money back to spend on other players on our team and other teams, and it was a win-win situation based on where he was and how he felt, we were open to that.”
The first-rounder Roseman received is still two years down the line, but having to wait isn’t a big deal to him.
“We’ve always been in the mindset a pick is a pick — a first-round pick is a first-round pick,” he said. “Doesn’t matter. Teams are still going to be playing football in 2028.”
The Eagles now have two firsts in 2028, which Roseman regards as “a huge, huge part of this move.” Meanwhile, the Patriots have a new No. 1 receiver in Brown, a three-time Pro Bowler and second-team All-Pro who is entering his age-29 campaign. Brown will reunite with head coach Mike Vrabel, a key figure earlier in his career in Tennessee. Brown played for Vrabel over his first three seasons.
In a post-trade interview with Maria Taylor on “7PM in Brooklyn,” Brown revealed he thought his “time was up” in Philadelphia after the season. While Brown went over 1,000 yards for the sixth time in his seven-year career, he voiced frustration with the Eagles’ sputtering offense on multiple occasions. Brown admitted he should have gone about things differently in public and on social media, but he noted: “Nothing I said was ever for personal gain. it was to help the team win.”
Philadelphia ran roughshod over the NFL during a 14-win regular season in 2024 and capped off the campaign with a blowout victory over the Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX. The team took home its second straight NFC East title last year, but it hardly resembled the juggernaut from the previous season. The Eagles went 11-6 and quickly bowed out of the playoffs in a wild-card round loss to the 49ers. Brown believes the defending champion Eagles pressed as a result of the high expectations they placed on themselves. He also revealed he and quarterback Jalen Hurts drifted apart during the season.
“Not as close as we once were,” Brown said. “And I believe that’s fine. There’s no bad blood. There’s actually still a lot of love.”
Brown will now work with a new quarterback in the Patriots’ Drake Maye, though there was a possibility of him joining Matthew Stafford in Los Angeles. The Rams ultimately bowed out of trade talks, leaving New England as the only real suitor for Brown. It turns out the Rams backed out because they “weren’t satisfied by what they saw” in Brown’s medicals, Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer said on the “unCovering the Birds” podcast.
Brown has a history of knee issues, but Roseman downplayed that when McLane asked and lauded the receiver’s durability. He missed six of a possible 68 regular-season games with the Eagles, though a few of those absences came as a result of hamstring problems.
When asked about his knee after the trade, Brown responded (via Karen Guregian of MassLive.com): “Maybe in four years I’ve missed one game from a shot to the knee. So, that’s nothing to worry about. I’m ready to go.”
Minor NFL Transactions: 6/3/26
Wednesday’s minor NFL transactions:
Dallas Cowboys
- Signed: WR Jaden Smith
New York Jets
- Waived (with injury designation): WR Da’Quan Felton
Philadelphia Eagles
- Signed: LB Chandler Martin
After only two days, Felton and Martin see their fortunes reversed. Martin is rejoining the team that waived him on Monday. The Jets will return Felton to the waiver wire two days after signing him with the apparent intent of reverting him to their injured reserve once he clears waivers.
Eagles Release DE Brandon Graham
Brandon Graham‘s latest stint with the Eagles has come to an end, but it might not take long for the defensive end to work his way back on the roster. Zach Berman of The Athletic reports that the Eagles have released the 38-year-old.
[RELATED: Eagles DE Brandon Graham To Play In 2026?]
However, Berman describes this as a “procedural” move. Graham inked a one-year deal last October that ended his temporary retirement. That pact was set to expire on June 3 unless the two sides worked out a new deal. A contract apparently didn’t come to fruition before the deadline, resulting in today’s release. Berman notes that Graham is still interested in returning to Philly for another season.
Graham has logged 215 appearances (106 starts) during his career, all of which has been spent with the Eagles. Since being selected in the first round of the 2010 draft, the defensive lineman has tallied 79.5 sacks and 128 tackles for loss. He’s also won a pair of championships with the organization.
The veteran saw a reduced role in recent years, culminating in a 2024 campaign where he earned a 19% snap share, the lowest of his career. Graham decided to hang up his cleats following that season, but he was coaxed out of retirement last October as the Eagles navigated injuries to their pass-rush corps. Despite 2025 representing Graham’s age-37 season, he still managed to compile three sacks and two tackles for loss in nine games.
The Eagles don’t currently have the need for excess edge depth. Nolan Smith and Jalyx Hunt will once again lead the unit, and the front office reinforced the position with their trade for Jonathan Greenard and signing of Arnold Ebiketie. Graham was used a bit at defensive tackle in 2025, so that multi-positional versatility would work in his favor when it comes to a potential return. When you also consider his veteran leadership, it’s easy to imagine the Eagles eventually re-signing Graham, even if he’s only guaranteed a very limited defensive role.