The Seattle Seahawks are 3-2 on the season. Considering the strong start to the year against the Patriots and coming off of the Super Bowl, most NFL fans wouldn't have predicted that. But there's still good reason to believe in Mike Macdonald's team with that defense — the offense just needs to keep up. Specifically, the run game needs a spark. And while Zach Charbonnet is going to return at some point, as will rookie Jadarian Price, they need something more immediate and more akin to pumping the run game full of rocket fuel.
You know, something like adding Saquon Barkley to the backfield. The Philadelphia Eagles are in a bad way. While Barkley missed Week 5 due to injury, the team dropped to 2-3 on the season, the offensive line is in shambles, and the faith in Jalen Hurts is waning. While it might not be likely that they would trade their star running back, it was something mentioned by insider Ian Rapoport and isn't out of the question. If that's the case, it's a call that the Seahawks need to make and try to make the blockbuster trade happen.
Seahawks-Eagles trade proposal to get Saquon Barkley to Seattle
Early discussions about what a potential package for the Eagles in a Barkley trade would look like have used the 49ers' trade for Christian McCaffrey as a starting point, though with less compensation overall because Barkley is three years older than CMC was when the Panthers made that deal. Even still, it's going to take a hefty haul to make such a deal happen. After all, McCaffrey was dealt for a second-, third- and foruth-round pick in that year's draft in addition to a fifth-rounder the following year.
So for Barkley, we're looking at a third-round pick this year, a seventh-round pick this year and then a second-round pick in 2028. It might be a bit more costly than that, it might be a situation where the Seahawks could include a player to make the trade more enticing — half-heartedly, I wonder if Philly would be at all interested in Jadarian Price and how that could make a deal work. But in any case, the Seahawks have enough draft capital and enough of a need to make this blockbuster happen.
Why the Seahawks would make this trade
Put simply, it's hard to overstate how bad the Seahawks run game has been. The Packers have infamously boasted the NFL's worst rushing attack this season at -0.34 Expected Points Added (EPA) per rush. The Seahawks are tied for next-to-last with the Raiders at -0.26 EPA per rush this season. It's been truly abysmal, which is why Jaxon Smith-Njigba and the passing offense have been forced to put up such big numbers.
But that's a problem. When you look at the recipe for success offensively that led Seattle to a Super Bowl last season, it wasn't Sam Darnold needing to chuck it all over the yard each week. He's far too turnover-prone for that to be a viable strategy, even if he has progressed from the Jets-level turnovers and poor decision-making.
Barkley would be an immediate answer there, a terrific fit for their offense as both a runner and pass-catcher out of the backfield who would seemingly open everything up. And the big thing is that the Seahawks are in a win-now position where they can afford to mortgage some draft capital to make an aggressive trade such as this.
Why the Eagles would trade Saquon Barkley away
Point blank, I'm not optimistic about the Eagles moving forward, both immediately and long term if they keep this in place. Even before Barkley's current injury absence and Lane Johnson's retirement, the fact of the matter is that Philly has been in decline this season. The offensive line, once their biggest strength, is now more akin to a weakness. Jalen Hurts is seemingly stagnating (or perhaps regressing) as a passer in a new offense. And it's becoming a problem.
Right now, the Eagles aren't even in the lead in the NFC East. The division is terrible, and they have a sub-.500 record. It's not good. Barkley is also a massive contract that's on their books through the end of the 2028 season, not including two void years thereafter. And while it's not huge cap savings immediately, it is a $1.3 million savings this year and millions saved in the coming seasons as well.
It really depends on how much the Eagles front office is panicking about the current state of affairs. From where I'm sitting, they absolutely should. They should be trying to clean house to some degree and then have an expedited rebuild. Shipping off a 29-year-old running back, no matter how good and talented, for multiple Top 100 picks seems like a piece that would fit right into that puzzle.
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