Cancel Howie szn
This coming Tuesday, November 5, if you didn’t already know, is a pretty big day. It is the NFL trade deadline.
Already there have been several moves, mostly at WR: the Jets traded for Davante Adams, the Bills for Amari Cooper, the Chiefs for DeAndre Hopkins and Josh Uche, the Ravens for Diontae Johnson, and the Seahawks and Vikings both made two trades.
Will the Eagles make one next week? It would surprise no one if they did. For the past 5 of the past 6 years, Howie Roseman has made an in-season trade. Some have been offloading players who were not needed for some draft compensation. Others have been to bolster the roster. With one exception, Roseman’s trades to improve the current roster haven’t worked.
2023
2024 5th and 6th and S Terrell Edmunds for S Kevin Byard
2025 7th and DT Kentavius Street for 2024 6th
2022
2023 4th for DE Robert Quinn
2021
TE Zach Ertz for CB Tay Gowan and a 2022 5th
QB Joe Flacco for 2022 6th
2022 6th for CB Kary Vincent
2020
None
2019
2021 4th for DE Genard Avery
2020 7th and S Jonathan Cyprien for 2020 6th and LB Duke Riley
2018
2019 3rd for WR Golden Tate
2017
2018 4th for RB Jay Ajayi
The selling trades were reasonable: Street for the better end of a pick swap, Ertz for a 5th, Flacco for a 6th, swapping Cyprien for Riley and the better end of a pick swap… these are fine marginal moves. Getting small upgrades in the draft for players who weren’t playing and weren’t going to play these are the kind of trades teams should be making. If Roseman trades, say, Isaiah Rodgers for the better end of a pick swap or straight up for a pick, go right ahead.
But don’t go making trades to try to add to the 2024 roster. For one, this team isn’t a player away from being a top tier team, and even if it was that kind of player isn’t available in-season. Case in point, just look at the moves that the Eagles have made. The Kevin Byard and Genard Avery trades were a waste of time. The Robert Quinn trade was so good that he never played football again. 106 players had a better yards per reception than Tate did as an Eagle. There is a reason why players are available for trade during the NFL season: they aren’t good enough. Aside from Jay Ajayi, none of those trades improved the Eagles on the field.
The Ajayi trade worked, but only because he helped win the Super Bowl. But taking that out of the equation, and it is a bit unfair to just erase the biggest piece of Eagles history, this was not a good trade. Ajay’s knees were in such bad shape—they were a big reason why Miami gave him up—that upon joining the Eagles he immediately was put on a limited practice schedule. He played 7 games over the next two seasons. A 4th round pick for a running back who played 17 games over two and a half seasons is typically bad business.
Playing the long game of gaining compensatory draft picks to recoup some of the cost hasn’t worked out either. The Eagles traded the 88th pick in the 2019 draft for Golden Tate, and received the 195th pick in the 2020 draft as compensation for him signing with the Giants. Robert Quinn received no comp pick because no one signed him. Kevin Byard did not qualify for a comp pick.
The time to be a buyer in the trade market is the offseason. Unless they’re offloading spare parts, the Eagles should sit the trade deadline out.
