The Eagles are releasing Andy Dalton, per NFL Media’s Mike Garafolo. Philadelphia needed a roster spot before Sunday’s game against Jacksonville in London, and the third quarterback was the easiest name to cross off.
Dalton threw exactly one pass as an Eagle. It was an interception, in the Week 3 loss to Chicago, after Jalen Hurts went down. That is the entire body of work.
He Was Already Third on the Depth Chart
Tanner McKee passed Dalton as the backup last weekend, which told you everything about where this was heading. Rookie Cole Payton is also on the 53-man roster. Once you are the third quarterback on a 2-2 team with injuries elsewhere, you are a roster spot wearing a jersey.
Philadelphia acquired Dalton from Carolina in March for a 2027 seventh-round pick. That is a low-cost insurance policy, and the Eagles are treating it like one. There is no sunk cost to protect here.
The roster crunch is real. Lane Johnson retired after 14 seasons. Cam Jurgens was traded to Baltimore. Add the injuries Philadelphia has absorbed up front and a team heading overseas needs bodies that can play on Sunday, not a veteran who has thrown one pass since March.
What Philadelphia Actually Needs
McKee is the backup now, and the Eagles are comfortable with that. If they were not, Dalton would still be employed. The move is a vote of confidence in McKee as much as it is a cut.
The London trip complicates everything. Travel, a short turnaround, and a Jacksonville team that will not be intimidated by a 2-2 opponent. Philadelphia has to field a functioning offensive line, and every spot on the roster matters more than the comfort of a veteran emergency option.
For Dalton, this is probably not the end. He is 38 and he has made a long career out of being the guy a contender calls in October. Somebody’s starter will get hurt in the next six weeks, and a quarterback who has started 160-plus NFL games will get a phone call.
The Bigger Picture in Philadelphia
Four weeks in, the Eagles are a 2-2 team with real questions in the trenches and a quarterback who has already missed time. The front office spent the week turning a center into draft capital and a backup quarterback into an open roster spot.
That is a team managing a season rather than coasting through one. Howie Roseman does not sit still, and Eagles fans have seen enough of these Octobers to know that the roster in December will not look like the roster in London.
Dalton was never going to be the reason this season worked or did not. Cutting him is not a signal about Philadelphia’s ceiling. It is a reminder that on a team with this many injuries, nobody who is not playing is safe.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.