The Philadelphia Eagles just started training camp, which means the countdown for the annual ‘Howie Roseman preseason trade’ has begun. Since 2017, he’s made seven late August/early September trades for guys like Jahan Dotson, C.J. Gardner-Johnson, and Ronald Darby. This is just a thing that he does.
Purely hypothetically: let’s just say maybe some of the guys that the Eagles planned to fill the roster holes from last year just aren’t the guys. Hopefully that’s not the case, but maybe it is… There are some players Howie Roseman could trade for that would fill those spots nicely.
It’s never not ‘Howie SZN’
During his pre-training camp press conference, Roseman said, “...We are expecting to have 13 picks in next year’s draft. Those can be used to improve the team this year… I think from our perspective, whatever opportunity comes about, that we can improve this football team… we’re going to make that change.”
He’s set himself up in a perfect situation to trade picks and get players so that his roster is where he wants it to be going into the season.
The obvious trade candidates are the ones holding out at their respective training camps, but those aren’t guys that Howie Roseman would trade for (probably). Specifically, Trey Hendrickson. He’d be a great addition… but he wants a lot of money, and the Eagles aren’t in the business of shelling out cash to 30-year-old defensive ends.
These are guys that aren’t necessarily those guys.
Jaylon Jones, Cornerback, Colts:
In June 2023, Isaiah Rodgers got suspended for gambling, and then the Eagles signed him. For the Eagles, the rest is history. For the Colts, that left a void at cornerback that needed to be filled. Jaylon Jones ended up filling that spot.
He was their seventh-round pick in the 2023 draft, and he ended up playing 67% of the defensive snaps that season. In 2024, he kept that job and did pretty good.
This offseason, the Colts signed Chervarius Ward in free agency and drafted Justin Walley in the third round, so they’re kind of set at cornerback. That means they could probably be convinced to trade Jones, and it probably wouldn’t cost a whole lot.
David Ojabo, Edge, Ravens:
The Ravens drafted David Ojabo in the second round of the 2022 draft. Unfortunately, he was coming off a pre-draft Achilles injury and only played in two games his rookie season (21 total defensive snaps). In 2023, it went poorly again, with him going on the IR after playing three games (80 snaps). In 2024, he played in 13 games as a rotational edge rusher and had a couple of sacks.
Look, he’s not great, but he’d be very cheap. There’s a chance that he doesn’t make the Ravens’ roster, so a trade for him would be just to make sure he doesn’t become available for other teams to sign.
If the Eagles do go for him, you’re kind of hoping that he’s one of those ‘maybe he’ll do better in a different environment’ type of guys.
Travon Walker, Defensive End, Jaguars:
Until he retires, I’m probably going to keep asking for the Eagles to trade for Travon Walker, the first overall pick in the 2022 draft out of Georgia.
He’s a good player who’s been on a terrible team, and now he’s about to play for his third defensive coordinator in four seasons. It’s not like he’s playing for the coaches who made the initial investment in him.
He’ll probably cost a pretty penny. The Jaguars did just exercise his fifth-year option, and OverTheCap.com has him projected to make $14 million because of it. So that's a teensy problem… Also, no one has ever been traded in the same offseason that they’ve had their fifth-year options exercised, so it’d be an unprecedented trade.
Shemar Stewart, Edge, Bengals (kind of):
Speaking of unprecedented trades, how about trading for a first-round draft pick who hasn’t signed with the team that drafted him? Enter: Shemar Stewart and the Cincinnati Bengals.
They’re fighting each other about some contract stuff. The Bengals don’t want to give him guarantees that most (if not all) first-round draft picks get. He’s not cool with that, so he’s just not shown up to anything.
If the two parties are at an absolutely unnavigable impasse, then the smart move would be to trade him and try to recoup some draft capital. The problem is that the Bengals are not a smart franchise, which might be an issue.
But let’s say they wise up. If this trade were to happen, it would have to be soon. John Breech of CBS Sports says, “There is a unique deadline in place for any team that wants to trade a rookie: A deal has to be made at least 30 days before the start of the regular season, so a decision would have to be made here by Aug. 5 or Aug. 8 (The CBA isn't clear if it's 30 days before the start of the first game of the regular season or 30 days before the Bengals' first game of the season).”
Stewart’s whole thing is that he needed to be developed (which makes him being absent from the Bengals’ practices even funnier). Luckily, that 30-day deadline kind of plays into development.
If the Eagles did trade for him, he wouldn’t be getting a whole training camp, but he would be getting a pretty good-sized chunk of one. That’s much better than a situation where they trade for him near the end of August, like what happened with C.J. Gardner-Johnson and Jahan Dotson in 2022 and 2024.