Eagles

Stefen Wisniewski “Sad to be Leaving” the Eagles

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Mar 12th, 2019 · 1:19 PM EDT

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Do we know why Stefen Wisniewski always seemed to get the short end of the stick during his time with the Eagles?

First they put him in that ridiculous 2017 platoon with Chance Warmack, when it was very easy to tell that he was the better player. Then they benched him for Isaac Seumalo last year, with Doug Pederson offering up half-assed quotes like this one to explain why:

“As a staff sometimes you evaluate all of your players, and if you need to make a change, you make a change. We felt comfortable with Isaac making the start this week.

…

I have no idea what the other theory would be, because everything in this business is performance-based.”

Translation: they needed to send a message, and the left guard was the easiest guy to scapegoat. Wis even took to social media to question his benching:

Even though I wasnt playing bad I got benched last week.Its frustrating,but no matter what I will praise Jesus and will trust that He is in control and is good.I will believe that“Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all”

— Stefen Wisniewski (@stefenwiz61) October 8, 2018

Wisniewski: “I’m going to be honest. I’ve been playing pretty well. I really don’t think that was it. I have some theories, but I’m not going to share those publicly.
…It’s frustrating. If I wasn’t a Christian, I’d probably be losing my mind."

— Zach Berman (@ZBerm) October 8, 2018

Agreed, and that’s not an anti-Seumalo stance, I was just one of the people who didn’t feel like Wisniewski was performing at a level that warranted his benching.

Anyway, the Birds declined his option this week, and Wis said his farewell to Philly, after the jump:

that championship was so special. I am sad to be leaving, but I trust that God is calling me elsewhere for a reason, and I am excited for that new opportunity

— Stefen Wisniewski (@stefenwiz61) March 12, 2019

Moving on, then. The Eagles save $3 million in salary, they’ve extended Seumalo and made him the starter, and they seem to like second-year guard Matt Pryor.

If we’re going through Wis film from the Super Bowl-winning season, I think his best Eagle highlight was the quality double smushing on the Jay Ajayi screen pass from the divisional round win against the Falcons. Watch this clip until the very end for the best angle: