We all knew the importance of Week 17 to the Eagles. We figured Washington would revel in the opportunity to spoil the Eagles’ chances of making the postseason. We didn’t know they’d cut a starting safety after he publicly criticized his coaches again, specifically defensive coordinator Greg Manusky:

After multiple incidents of calling out his coaching staff – without any publicly acknowledged penalty – his takedown of Manusky proved to be too much. Swearinger said of the gameplan installed by Manusky:

“I felt like we should have been more aggressive,” safety D.J. Swearinger said after the 25-16 loss. “I feel like on the third down and 6, third down and 7, we’re playing a backup quarterback, why would you put us in man-to-man? We are our best on defense when we look at the quarterback. When you go one high on a backup quarterback, that’s easy, man. It’ll go backside every time.”

His now former head coach Jay Gruden wasn’t thrilled to say the least:

“He’s a talented guy and he has played very well this year. I think he’s an alternate for the Pro Bowl and he has done some good things. I don’t know if he really understands that what he’s doing is not helpful one bit. It is a distraction. It hurt Coach Manusky, he worked his tail off during the week to get the best game plan together, called man coverage on third down-and-six which about 95 percent of the other coordinators do and we got an unfortunate PI call. He called some great zone coverages, we missed tackles on third-and-12 and they got converted, we missed a tackle on third-and-six on a tackle on a back in the flat and they converted on that one for a 30-yard gain. So, at some point we are in this together and the players or player has to understand that we are working extremely hard and Coach Manusky is working extremely hard that we don’t need any of that stuff after a game.”

It wasn’t the first time he’s been critical of his coaching staff:

Or his teammates:

All that said, if you’re the Eagles and you genuinely think there’s a path to a postseason run, you have to make a run at the guy once he hits the waiver wire. It’s far too soon to expect him to learn a new system for Sunday’s game, but if you give the guy the chance to stick it to his former team, it could pay dividends. Swearinger has one year left on his deal for $5.833 million and has been a playmaker with four interceptions, three forced fumbles, and 51 tackles on the year. He’d be an instant upgrade in a depleted secondary and it could make the Eagles a more legitimate threat if things break their way this weekend.