The Philadelphia Eagles had some surprising news in the hours leading up to the NFL Draft, as the team announced it had acquired the Arizona Cardinals' third-round pick (No. 66 overall) as a result of the Cardinals tampering with former defensive coordinator Jonathon Gannon.
Gannon was hired as head coach of the Cardinals immediately after the Eagles' Super Bowl loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Arizona interviewed the defensive coordinator days after the NFC Championship Game, which is considering tampering by the league.
Whether Philadelphia received enough from Arizona -- who self-reported the violation -- is up for debate. To resolve the matter, the Cardinals and Eagles agreed to swap third round picks in the draft (Philly got No. 66, with Arizona moving back to No. 94) and the Cardinals received the Eagles' fifth-round selection in 2024.
No matter the end result, Eagles general manager Howie Roseman didn't want to discuss the situation. The Gannon tampering brought back bad memories for Roseman, but not the memories one would think.
"I'm mad that we're talking about the freakin' Super Bowl," Roseman said on the WIP Morning Show Tuesday. "I'm mad that I got to freakin' go back to that moment, that we had a chance to win our second world championship and it drives me. All this other stuff, it doesn't help us win games so we've got to move on from it and figure out the best way to win games.
"That was handled at the ownership level and at the league level and for me I can only control what we can, which is adding as many good players and as many good people as we can on this team."
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Gannon still hasn't addressed the tampering situation, sitting out all three of the post-draft press conferences. Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort did discuss it, owning up to his blunder.
"I made a mistake. I own that," Ossenfort said Thursday. "It's a situation that we were able to resolve. I've apologized to (Cardinals owner) Michael Bidwill. I've apologized to our staff. I think that the deal we worked out, it is what it is. We're just moving on from it and I really don't have a lot more to say on it."
The situation won't go away until Gannon speaks about it at his next presser. The Eagles picked Alabama guard Tyler Steen with the pick they received, while Arizona selected Stanford wide receiver Michael Wilson.
Considering the Cardinals had the tampering charge, the fact they got an extra pick next year seems bizarre -- even if the Eagles moved up 28 spots in the third round this year.
