From the sounds of it, Evan Mathis isn't all that excited over the proposition of being a 33-year-old free agent, hitting the street at a time when most NFL franchises have already filled out their 90-man rosters and aren't likely to come knocking down his door to offer the kind of incentive-laden contract he was seeking from his former employer.
Mathis, released by the Philadelphia Eagles last week, has long been rumored to be seeking an upgrade on a contract that would have paid him $5.5 million in base salary in 2015. Mathis, speaking to CSNPhilly.com's Geoff Mosher in the wake of his release, indicated that despite his desire for a new deal, he would have shown up and played for the Eagles and head coach Chip Kelly under his former deal and wouldn't have allowed it to distract him from his on-field work.
"Yes, I would have played under the contract and been fine - like last year," said Mathis. "I can block stuff out and not let it be a distraction. I missed voluntary stuff, but I was still working hard. It doesn't mean I was going to be a bad apple. I would never do that."
Mathis and agent Drew Rosenhaus asked the Eagles for his release in March this if they weren't willing to rework his deal. Mathis said that neither he nor Rosenhaus asked Philly to cut him since, despite Kelly's assertion while meeting the media prior to Eagles minicamp on Tuesday that the pair had requested Mathis be released on several occasions.
"We were asked by his agent for a release on multiple occasions," Kelly said, via ESPN. "We weren't going to come to a conclusion in terms of a contract extension. We weren't going to extend any contract or adjust any contract, so we granted him what his agent asked for."
Per Mosher, sources indicated that Mathis was telling the truth when he said he hadn't asked for his release since March.
"All I ever wanted to do was lay low with it and try to communicate only with the team," Mathis said of the contract talks.
In the end, Mathis is now a free agent and able to sign with any team, but he still didn't sound too happy about the outcome of the situation.
"It's not my choice that I was cut the way I was," he said.
