The trade deadline is less than a week away, and the Philadelphia Eagles haven’t made a move yet. There might be a few reasons behind that: The Eagles don’t have a huge surplus of 2025 draft picks and Vic Fangio doesn’t necessarily want anyone new.
In his press conference on Tuesday, Vic was asked if there was any defensive position that he was looking to grow via a trade at the deadline. He simply said, “No,” which is an awesome level of bluntness. The guy answers the immediate questions he’s asked and that’s it.
Then he got pressed a little, and he essentially said that in-season trades don’t normally pan out the way teams hope unless it’s a big-time trade for a player who will be around for a while.
When he said that, it seemed like he was talking directly to the general manager Howie Roseman. Howie’s made some trades at the deadline for defensive players who are only around for the rest of the year, and those have not panned out. The exception was in 2017 when he traded for running back Jay Ajayi.
This is important because before Vic straight-up said that he doesn’t want any short-term help on his defense, the thought was that the Eagles would trade for some kind of pass rusher. But if Vic says he’s good, then you’ve got to trust him.
So let’s shift our focus to the other side of the ball. Maybe Howie heard Fangio loud and clear and he wants to give Kellen Moore some other tools for his offense. The Eagles could use help at tight end, running back depth, and quarterback depth.
Eagles Rumors: Tight end trade candidates
The unfortunate truth is that Dallas Goedert is getting older and he’s having trouble staying healthy. The Eagles drafted him to be the ‘next guy’ when Zach Ertz was 28 years old. Goedert is 29 years old.
If history repeats itself, even in a relatively close way, the Eagles will probably be looking for Goedert’s replacement at some point in the very near future. Yes, Grant Calcaterra has been a pretty good pass catcher since Goedert has been out with his hamstring injury, but he’s nowhere near as talented of a run blocker.
The Eagles could use this year’s trade deadline to grab a tight end that is proven or ready to blossom. Based on what some higher-caliber wide receivers have been traded for in the past few weeks, some of these tight ends might not actually have that high of a price tag.
The Eagles could go after Chig Okonkwo, the 25-year-old Tennessee Titan who was drafted in the fourth round of the 2022 draft. The Titans are a bad team that should be willing to pawn off players.
David Njoku is another player that could be a possibility. The Browns are a bottom-of-the-barrel team, and if they’re willing to send Amari Cooper to the Bills, then they should be willing to send Njoku away as well. The only hiccup here is that he’s 28 years old and has had an injury history, so the Eagles wouldn’t exactly be solving any problems with a trade here.
Tommy Tremble is the Panthers’ 24-year-old tight end and he’ll be a free agent after this season. It’d be worth their while to get picks for a player that they would have to pay at the end of the season if they want to keep him. The Panthers need to sell everything that they have in order to reset their rebuild. He’s probably not a foundational piece of that franchise, but it’s the Panthers and they’re very dumb so who knows?
Eagles Rumors: trade for running back depth
Saquon Barkley rocks, but there is an unfathomable gap between him and Kenny Gainwell. Gainwell is going to be a free agent after this season, so the Eagles have an opportunity (albeit an unlikely one) to do the ole switcheroo in the next week.
They could trade Kenny Gainwell because in all reality they’re not going to pay him next year, and then trade again for a different running back. There’s no better place to start than with the team that’s coming to town this weekend.
Travis Etienne has taken a backseat to Tank Bigsby in the Jaguars’ backfield over the past handful of weeks. They’re a bad team that’s currently spiraling, so they should be sellers at the deadline. Etienne was the Jags’ first-round pick in 2021 but missed that whole season with a foot injury from a preseason game. He’s rushed for over 1,000 yards in the two seasons he’s actually played. Unfortunately, he’s dealing with a hamstring thing. That could be real, or it could be one of those injuries that vanish once a player gets traded.
Tony Pollard had his best season in Kellen Moore’s offense when they were both with the Cowboys in 2022. Pollard was an RB2 on that team, which is exactly what he would be to Saquon. The problem here is that Pollard is currently in his first year of a three-year deal with the Titans. Again, that team is trash and they’d probably want to get out of that deal and get some draft picks if they could. It’s hard to imagine that the Eagles would just take the entire contract in a trade, especially since Pollard is 27 years old, so there would have to be some shifty finagling.
Eagles Rumors: Trade for quarterback depth
Kenny Pickett is currently the Eagles QB2 but doesn’t have a realistic future with the team. He wasn’t a good starting quarterback and he hasn’t earned the trust enough for us to think he’d be a good backup quarterback.
There are plenty of teams out there who are dealing with quarterback issues, which is great because those are also franchises that are poorly run. A poorly run franchise is exactly who the Eagles should trade Kenny Pickett to.
The Colts want to bench a quarterback that they knew would be a project? Cool, that’s dumb. The Titans want to fart around with Will Levis and Mason Rudolph? Great, but also dumb. The Giants want to maybe bench Daniel Jones to keep him healthy so they can trade him later? Actually, that’s smart, but still, they’re a perfect candidate. These are all super unserious football teams and Pickett would be able to slide right into a starting role for each of them.
If Howie can flip Kenny, he should immediately pick up the phone and call the Panthers to trade for Bryce Young. He’d probably only cost a fourth or fifth-round pick, and the cogs in the bowels of “Quarterback Factory” could spark back to life.
Not only would this move be a form of rehabilitation for Young, but it would also bump Tanner McKee up to QB2, which is right where he should be. This would be an absolute win because, in a year or two, the Eagles could flip Young and get back more than what they paid for him.
This trade has nothing to do with the direct product on the field; it’s more like trading stocks… except it’s with the livelihood of a 23-year-old former first-overall draft pick.