It doesn’t sound like the Eagles are working with Golden Tate on a contract extension

If the Philadelphia Eagles are interested in re-signing impending free agent wide receiver Golden Tate, they apparently haven’t shown it yet. Tate made a comment in response to news of other NFL players receiving extensions on Monday:

He also tweeted this sad face:

So, yeah, it sounds like the Eagles haven’t been in touch with him about a potential contract extension.

Honestly, that’s not surprising. First of all, there’s still over a month until free agency begins on March 13. So there’s still time for things to change. In this case, though, it doesn’t seem like it will. The sense here has been that the Eagles won’t be bringing Tate back.

Unless the Eagles plan to move on from Nelson Agholor, I just can’t see them re-signing Tate. Some free agent rankings have him as the top receiver available. I don’t think the Eagles, who are working with limited cap space, will be rushing to pay him a big contract. Then again, Howie Roseman called the Tate trade a success, so maybe they’re interested in keeping him around? I’d guess Tate won’t be back in 2019. I think he signs elsewhere and the Eagles likely earn a fourth-round compensatory pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.

For reference, here’s exactly what Roseman had to say about the Tate trade.

Q: The Golden Tate trade, did that work out the way you wanted, and do you stand by the price you paid for him?

HOWIE ROSEMAN: No question. When we made the trade, we were 4-4. We were looking for a spark. We were looking for more firepower on offense. When you talk about Golden, here is a guy who has incredible character, incredible production, can really fit any scheme. Everyone in this building was incredibly excited about adding him to our football team. We knew the price to pay. We wanted to make a playoff run. We wanted to make sure that we were putting our team in a position to do that. And we’re always going to put our foot on the gas. It doesn’t mean we’re always going to be right, but we don’t look back with regret. We look back at our process, and I feel very good about our process. We’re going to be aggressive, and when we are swinging and we’re going to be aggressive, we feel like we’re going to be right a lot more than wrong. In this case, feel very good about that. And you saw the contributions that he made in a big game. The stage isn’t too big for Golden Tate.

Tate did make a big contribution to the Eagles by catching the game-winning touchdown in Philadelphia’s Wild Card win over the Bears in Chicago. But I think that’s probably going to be his final touchdown scored as a member of the Eagles.

At the moment, it sounds like Philly isn’t exactly dying to have him back for 2019. That shouldn’t be surprising given how the Eagles struggled to incorporate him into the offense.