Justin Reid nearly went from playing with Patrick Mahomes to Jalen Hurts after the Eagles showed serious interest in free agency

2x Super Bowl winning safety Justin Reid, before signing with the Saints, nearly joined the holders Eagles, but nothing materialized.

Justin Reid nearly went from playing with Patrick Mahomes to Jalen Hurts after the Eagles showed serious interest in free agency

Justin Reid nearly signed with the Eagles (Image via Imago)

The Kansas City Chiefs lost more than just Super Bowl LIX. Following the disappointing outing in New Orleans, they lost several of their starters in free agency. One of them was impactful safety Justin Reid, who nearly made the switch to the champions, the Philadelphia Eagles.

Reid was among the core of players that won consecutive Super Bowls in Kansas City in 2022-23. Head coach Andy Reid even allowed him to take the kickoff duty from Harrison Butker partway through last year after he suffered an injury.

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The Chiefs were confident going into their third Super Bowl in three years, but the Eagles dominated the tie, winning 40-22 in the end. Reid didn’t take the loss too badly like some of the others, and after three years with the Chiefs, he was a free agent once again.

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According to the 28-year-old, the Eagles showed serious interest in him after they traded away CJ Gardner-Johnson. In a recent interview with Kay Adams, Reid revealed he came close to wearing the Kelly Green next campaign.

[I was] pretty close [to signing for the Eagles]. Just because me and the defensive backs coach there [Christian Parker] have a really good relationship. The defensive system was the same defensive system that I ran at Stanford. That whole Vic Fangio system I know it pretty well.

Justin Reid told on the latest segment of Up & Adams

Then what kept him from signing with the Eagles?

The conversations were pretty intense. The only drawback was they were so limited in cap space that we couldn’t make a deal that made sense. But the conversation was happening.

Justin Reid added

Which team did Justin Reid sign for after failed talks with the Eagles?

After the door closed on a move to play with Jalen Hurts, Cooper DeJean, and Quinyon Mitchell, Reid signed with the New Orleans Saints. According to reports from ESPN, Reid’s three-year, $31.5 million deal includes $22.25 million in guarantees.

Justin Reid nearly went from playing with Patrick Mahomes to Jalen Hurts after the Eagles showed serious interest in free agency
Justin Reid (Image via IMAGO)

The new deal places Reid 16th among safeties. His $10.5 million AAV ranks 17th, and his total practical guarantees rank 12th. Reid is a Louisiana-born and bred, so it’s a big opportunity to play for his hometown team.

I feel pretty good. I’m really excited about how the situation unfolded. Free agency is always so crazy because you never know where things are going to end up, but it ended up working out in a really great way.

Justin Reid added

Unlike the Chiefs and the Eagles, the Saints are in a very precarious position. The team from Louisiana finished with a 5-12 record, their worst since the pre-Sean Payton/Drew Brees era. On top of it, he is walking into a completely new management run by first-time head coach Kellen Moore, who managed the Eagles Super Bowl-winning offense last season.

Reid is set to partner with former Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu at the base of the Saints defense that ranked 27th in conceding passing yards, but on the positive side, let in the fourth-fewest passing touchdowns in the NFL in 2024.

We have so much firepower and so many weapons in Louisiana; it feels like we are building an All-Star team. You know build an All-Star team, you get to pick your pick at recess, you pick your guys. We are just picking Louisiana’s best and bringing them all home and we are gonna go in and see what we can do.

Justin Reid added

Reid had hopes of re-signing with the Chiefs

Reid revealed that, besides the Eagles and the Saints, the Titans also wanted to sign him. Adams quickly countered by asking the reason for not re-signing with the Chiefs.

They were in the conversation too. I was texting coach Spags [Steve Spagnuolo] and obviously coach [Dave] Merritt [DB coach] the whole time along the process to see if something can be worked out. But the only constant thing in this business is change.

Justin Reid said

Reid was ready to wait and see how the situation played out with the Chiefs before accepting calls from other teams.

I was actually trying to wait. Yeah! I was trying to wait and buy time to see if something we could get worked out and then cards unfolded, it just didn’t work out.

Justin Reid quipped

Reid entered the league after the Houston Texans drafted him in the third round in 2018. In his seven seasons since then, Reid recorded a total of 580 combined tackles, 23 tackles for loss, 6.0 sacks, 46 pass deflections, 10 interceptions, 3 forced fumbles, and one touchdown. Eagles missed out on a good player.

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