Things are not great for the Philadelphia Eagles right now. They’ve lost two straight games for the first time since 2023, the offense is disjointed, A.J. Brown is rightfully unhappy, there are glaring weak spots in the secondary, and the pass rush is nonexistent.
To make matters worse, Za’Darius Smith, the edge rusher they signed after Week 1 (who also led the edge rushers in sacks with a whopping 1.5), decided to retire on Monday. Luckily, Howie Roseman is addicted to making trades, and with 10 projected picks in the 2026 draft (three of which are third-round picks), he has the ammunition to go out and trade for someone.
It’s time to scavenge carcasses
With Nolan Smith on IR, the Eagles’ four healthy edges are Jalyx Hunt, Josh Uche, Azeez Ojulari, and Patrick Johnson.
Hunt hasn’t had the breakout season that his teammates said he would have. Uche’s been fine, but he’s better against the run than he is at getting after the quarterback. Ojulari’s only been active for two games, and he’s had his own injury problems in the past. And Patrick Johnson (the new sack leader in the room, with one sack) has never played a full-time role.
We saw in Week 6 that if these guys can’t affect the quarterback or set an edge, the defensive backfield is going to get exposed. They had a season-high time to pressure of 2.91 seconds, a season-low 26.5% pressure rate, and allowed the Giants to have a +0.15 EPA per pass (the average is +0.04, per SumerSports).
Ideally, Howie Roseman and the Eagles would be able to wait closer to the trade deadline (Tuesday, November 4th) to figure out who they would trade for. That way, not only would there be more options of teams that are sellers, but we’d also find out if the Eagles are a serious team or not. The way they’ve looked over the last two weeks, they are not a serious team. It’d be dumb to waste draft picks if you don’t need to.
Again, that’s what would be ideal. This situation is far from that because the Eagles can’t really afford to go into the next few games with only four warm bodies who can get after the quarterback.
The obvious hope here is that this doesn’t end up being one of those really bad Howie Roseman trades, especially since he already made one this season when he sent a 2026 fifth and sixth-round pick to the Jaguars for Tank Bigsby, who can’t field a kickoff.
Remember 2022, when he traded a fourth-round pick for Robert Quinn, who ended up playing a total of 88 defensive snaps? Yeah. How’s about we avoid that kind of a thing?
I’m sure at some point, the Eagles will pick up a free agent edge guy, but it’s Week 7, and there’s a reason those guys are still free agents. Do you want Kwon Alexander? No. No, you don’t.
In order to get the guys that will give you any type of production, you’ve got to look at the trade market, and the best place to start looking is the teams that are already dead in the water: the Dolphins, the Jets, the Titans, the Saints, and the Browns.
Bradley Chubb, Dolphins:
Before Vic Fangio came to the Eagles, he was the defensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins, and things did not end well for him there. Apparently, a bunch of the players were not cool with the way that he coaches, and some of them were pretty outspoken about the whole thing.
Because of that, it might seem like it’s a bad idea to add someone who was part of that defense to the Eagles.
It’s a little different with Bradley Chubb because they both spent three years together (from 2019 to 2021) with the Denver Broncos. He dealt with a bunch of injuries those years, but when he played, he was good. It’d be cool to get a player who’s comfortable and productive in the Fangio scheme.
Unfortunately, injuries are something that have kind of become synonymous with the Chubb family. He had a partial tear of an ACL that ended his 2019 season, an ankle surgery that made him miss 10 games in 2021, and he annihilated his right knee at the end of the 2023 season, which kept him out of the entire 2024 season… He’s also 29 years old.
He’s played in all of the Dolphins' games this season and hasn’t shown up on any of their injury reports, so that’s a good sign. If the Eagles are willing to take a chance on this guy, it’d probably be a solid investment.
Jermaine Johnson, Jets:
For whatever reason, the Jets’ defense is loaded with talent, but they absolutely stink. Part of that talent is one of their three 2022 first-round draft picks, Jermaine Johnson. Howie Roseman had had five guys from the first round of that draft on his roster at some point in the past 12 months, so it’s safe to say that he loves that class.
That wouldn’t/shouldn’t be the reason to draft Johnson. The reason should be that he absolutely rocks. The problem is that he’s another injury guy, but not as much as Chubb.
In Week 2 of the 2024 season, he popped his Achilles, and he’s already missed three games this season with an ankle thing. That’s not perfect, but it’s workable because when he’s on, he’s very on.
What the Eagles would be aiming for is at least a repeat of his 2023 Pro Bowl season, where he had 7.5 sacks, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, an interception, 11 TFLs, and 16 quarterback hits.
At six feet and five inches tall and 250-ish pounds, this dude would add a disgusting amount of size (specifically height) and physicality to the Eagles' edge rushing group. If I had my way, Johnson would be the guy the Eagles ended up trading for. Hopefully, Joe Douglas (the Jets’ former general manager and current personnel director for the Eagles) still has some sway with that organization. He probably definitely doesn’t, but maybe he does.
Dre’Mont Jones or Arden Key, Titans:
The Titans have a couple of guys the Eagles could use: Dre’Mont Jones and Arden Key.
Jones isn’t super unlike Bradley Chubb in that he’s also a Vic Fangio guy. The difference is that Fangio actually drafted Jones in the third round of the 2019 draft. On top of that, he spent 2023 with the Eagles' defensive line coach (and mammoth of a man) Clint Hurtt, when Hurtt was the Seahawks’ defensive coordinator.
Jones hasn’t really been spectacular or anything like that, but he’s been solid and reliable. That’s the kind of guy you’ll get if you don’t want to trade premium draft picks to a dead team.
Arden Key will get the job done. He’s better against the run than he is getting after the quarterback, which has its merits. If the Eagles went after him, it’d be pretty unremarkable and incredibly on-brand.
Carl Granderson, Saints:
This one seems like a stretch given that Carl Granderson has been one of the tentpole guys in New Orleans over the past six seasons, but it’s a new regime there and Kellen Moore probably wants more draft capital for the future… So why not?
This dude simply does not miss time unless it’s court-ordered (I’ll get to that), and he’s incredibly productive. He leads the team in sacks this year with 4.5 (one on Josh Allen, two on Mac Jones, and 1.5 on Kyler Murray). He had 5.5 in 2024, 8.5 in 2023, 5.5 in 2022, three in 2021, five in 2020, and one in 2019. Those are numbers you like to see.
What you don’t like to see, and this might be a red flag for the Eagles, Big Dom DiSandro, and every other person with a shred of a conscience, is that Granderson did miss time in 2019 because he spent time in jail for sexual battery. That’s not good.
Isaiah McGuire, Browns:
The Browns drafted Isaiah McGuire in the fourth round of the 2023 draft, so at 24 years old, he’s still got a lot of ball ahead of him; the entire idea behind trading for him is that he’s a young player with promise. He’s not just a guy who could help out this season, but he could be a solid piece moving forward if Uche, Ojulari, and/or Johnson don’t amount to anything.
He’s been an above-average player who, once again, is better against the run than he is rushing the quarterback. But he’s still pretty solid at that. It is notable that he’s a defensive end and not an edge rusher. He can drop into coverage, but that’s not really his jam.
Now, the obvious thing here is that he’s on the field with Myles Garrett. Whenever a dude like that is on the field, guys like McGuire turn into relative afterthoughts.
A bonus here is that the Browns’ general manager, Andrew Berry, is a ding-dong. He just traded a starting-caliber quarterback to a divisional rival (Flacco to the Bengals) for half a sandwich and a lit cigarette. If there’s a GM that Howie Roseman can make a mutually beneficial trade with (read: absolutely fleece), it’s Berry.