Eagles-Vikings Predicted To Swing Draft Day Trade

What are the Eagles going to do ahead of the NFL Draft?

Jan 13, 2025; Glendale, AZ, USA; Detailed view of a Minnesota Vikings helmet during an NFC wild card game at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

The Philadelphia Eagles have a need in the secondary right now after trading away CJ Gardner-Johnson.

The Eagles have plenty of in-house talent at safety that could steer the team away from making a big investment in free agency. While this is the case, the upcoming National Football League Draft could be an option to add cheap, high-end talent.

The Athletic released their latest mock draft on Thursday and it certainly is interesting. Obviously, every mock draft at this time in the year is hypothetical. We are roughly one month from the draft we really won't know what teams are thinking until the day of unless they make proclamations ahead of time.

Mock drafts are a fun way to think about what could happen, though. They are especially interesting coming from insiders. For The Athletic's mock draft, they had an insider from each team make their pick for each team. For the Eagles, The Athletic predicted that Philadelphia will trade up to No. 24 and select Georgia safety Malaki Starks.

"No. 24. Philadelphia Eagles: Malaki Starks, S, Georgia," Brooks Kubena said. "Trade: Vikings trade No. 24 to Eagles for No. 32, a 2025 fifth-round pick and a 2026 third-round pick. The Eagles explored multiple trade opportunities before the Vikings revealed themselves to be a reasonable bunch. That the Lions published negotiations on social media remains disappointing. What began as an exercise in market evaluation turned into a pretty fair bargain.

"The Eagles are likely to have three third-round picks in 2026 and had four 2025 fifth-rounders to sweeten any deal. Not bad for an eight-spot leap. Starks is a sensible choice after trading away C.J. Gardner-Johnson to the Texans. The Eagles add a proven playmaker in Starks to a room in which Reed Blankenship is the only established starter."

The Eagles obviously love players from Georgia. Starks is one of the top safeties in this draft class and is coming off a season with an interception, 77 total tackles, and three passes defended in 14 games.

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