Eagles Howie Roseman has Decision to Make as Trade Deadline Looms

The general manager has to decide if making a trade to bring in a player will actually help this year or if holding on to draft picks would be more beneficial

USA Today

The trade deadline is a week from Tuesday.

Usually the Eagles, with Howie Roseman in charge of personnel decisions, make a trade to try to help the team at this time of year.

Two years ago, they brought in running back Jay Ajayi and they won the Super Bowl.

Last year, they brought in receiver Golden Tate and they went to the Divisional Round of the playoffs.

This year, well, there doesn’t seem to be one move that will help them get back into the playoffs.

Head coach Doug Pederson was asked on Monday about the possibiity of a trade.

" If you look at Sunday’s game, I would say we have a lot of work to do," said Pederson, referring to the Eagles' blowout, 37-10 loss to the Dallas Cowboys. "As far as the trade deadline stuff, I would lean a little more towards Howie on that and our collaboration on that, and if there's anything we can do to add value, add talent, add depth to the roster, we're going to take a look at that.

"We do have some things to clean up, but I do think we are talented enough to make a run here in these next nine weeks."

Up and down the roster there are holes that need filled, so many that it would take three or four trade deadlines to fix. This is a team that simply doesn’t look good enough to make the playoffs after the pitiful performances they have rolled out the past two weeks.

"Man up."

—Rex Ryan has issues with Doug Pederson. pic.twitter.com/oDfhXCHSAu

— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) October 21, 2019

In losing to Minnesota and Dallas, the Eagles have been outscored 75-30.

Is there a player available that can make up those 40 points?

Not likely.

The bigger question then becomes: should the Eagles just stay put and not make a move or do they try to trade somebody and bring in more draft picks?

Start with the second part of that question.

Bringing in more draft picks is all well and good if they result in players who can actually contribute.

Take a look at Sunday night’s game against the Cowboys.

Former second-round pick Sidney Jones (2017) didn’t play a snap nor did he probably deserve to given the way he has been soundly beaten in coverage all season long.

Former fourth-round pick Mack Hollins (2017) played 30 snaps in Dallas, yet the receiver was targeted once. Even worse, Hollins has played 138 snaps over the past four games and has one 13-yard catch on just six targets.

Fourth-round pick Shareef Miller (2019) was active for the first time on Sunday, but he did not play a snap, either.

Fifth-round pick Nathan Gerry (2017) led the Eagles in tackles against the Cowboys with 11, but the linebacker also missed his share of tackles and the linebacker play has been suspect all year. They were called out by the coaching staff for needing to play better during the week. Not sure the message was received loud and clearly after the way they looked in Dallas.

Maybe more draft picks would lead to a better hit rate, after all, the Eagles had just five picks in each of the last two years. In 2020, they could have as many as 10.

That leads to the second part of the earlier question, about staying put instead of selling off expensive pieces.

Not doing anything and saving your draft picks makes the most sense.

Ten draft selections in 2020 feels about right. Anything more than that feels like too many.

Staying put risks sending a bad message to the current roster, which in turn could lead to some players checking out, though it could be argued that it already looks like some players have already done that.