Saw some grumbling on Twitter after Raheem Mostert ran for 220 yards and four touchdowns in last night’s NFC Championship game, grumbling because the Eagles cut him four years ago during Chip Kelly’s reign.

Not that it really truly mattered.

The Eagles went on to win a Super bowl two years later, so it worked out just fine with free agent LeGarrette Blount, rookie Corey Clement, and mid-season acquisition Jay Ajayi. Howie Roseman made the right moves at running back after being released from storage closet B, where he was banished after Chip slapped a chokehold on player-personnel decision making down at NovaCare.

Mostert put up 351 total yards in the 2015 preseason, but was cut anyway after the Eagles decided to roll with DeMarco Murray, Ryan Mathews, Darren Sproles, and Oregon alumnus Kenjon Barner. Sproles doubled as the punt returner that year while Barner claimed the RB4 spot and then went on to be a special teams contributor during the 2017 Super Bowl year.

Mostert ended up on the practice squad and was then signed by the Dolphins, found himself released there, but did not clear waivers and was claimed by the Ravens. They cut him, and again he didn’t clear waivers, this time being plucked by Cleveland, where he played a couple of games and returned kicks for the Browns. From there he went to the Jets and Bears under similar circumstances before finally ending up in San Francisco.

So that’s six teams that had a shot at Mostert but didn’t give it to him, and now he’s playing in a Super Bowl at age 27 in what has become the best feel good/late bloomer story of the NFL season.

Eagles fans shouldn’t worry too much about it, though.

First of all, Barner played for Chip in college and was always favored to win that final roster spot. He also played well in the preseason that year, running for a touchdown against Indy and also taking that 92-yard punt return to the house. Barner wasn’t a bad player, and Mostert essentially was in the same situation as a Josh Adams or Greg Ward; which is to say that their preseason contributions really didn’t matter all that much since the roster was already set in those two positions. Maybe the Eagles rethink their approach in 2020 considering Ward’s recent success, but there are a lot of guys who slip through the cracks in this league. Mostert was, after all, an undrafted free agent coming from a not-very-heralded college program in Purdue, bringing with him four years of ball carrying that didn’t even amount to 800 total yards.

But that’s water under the bridge. The Birds won a Super Bowl and they now have a young stud in Miles Sanders handling the rock. Chip Kelly is long gone. Mostert found himself a home and now gets to play for a ring.

It didn’t work out back then, the Eagles/Mostert marriage, but both sides are doing just fine these days. I’ll leave you with this, from his agent: