Howie Roseman's Eagles Trade Plans for Draft: Will it Work This Time?

The Philadelphia Eagles general manager has made draft-day dealing look easy, but it isn't always so, and he is preparing for many long walks between the third and sixth rounds

During one draft, when Mark Dominik was the general manager of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he wanted to trade out of the first round. Except the phone wasn’t ringing.

He had his assistant pick up the phone and make sure there was a dial tone.

“(People) asked why didn’t you trade out? Well, no one called,” said Dominik earlier this month.

“I think the hard part is, a lot of us as fans, and reporters, I think everybody assumes that trades are always available and it’s just not.”

Philadelphia Eagles general manager Howie Roseman has had his share of good fortune making it happen, and the expectation is that he will somehow find a way to tilt the draft board in his favor to fully maximize his two first-round picks.

Beyond the first round, the Eagles won’t make a pick between the third round, No. 94 overall, and the seventh, No. 219. Roseman has no picks in the fourth, fifth, or, sixth rounds.

The GM said last week that he is preparing to take plenty of long walks as the draft goes on without him.

“I think that the most important thing is the value of the player that you're talking about trading for with the future pick," he said. "By that, I mean if we're to be in the third round and we had a first-round grade on a guy, and we came to the conclusion that we would trade a next year (second-round pick), it would be based on the fact of the grade of the player and the caliber of the player.

“It'll be based on the value of the board and the value of the positions and the players that are available to us, if that makes sense. I will have to take lots of walks, though, lots of walks.”

Last year, Roseman said he probably had more trade offers for his third round than he can remember.

The GM resisted and selected linebacker Nakobe Dean, who is expected to be a starter this season.

“We felt like we didn't want to move that pick because of Nakobe,” said Roseman.

Also, last year, the Eagles made a small bump up the draft board because they were enamored with defensive tackle Jordan Davis. They sacrificed a fourth and two fifths to make it happen.

“I think the most important thing for us is not necessarily to win the draft in terms of how many picks we can possibly get and how many players that we can possibly pick, but getting the right players,” he said.

“For us, there are going to be times where we're sitting there and our board is going to have a big drop-off and we'll have a trade offer to move back, and we'll say, ‘We think the value of this pick is better than getting some of these mid-picks.’ We've talked a lot in this room about when you're picking and how the odds naturally cut off at a certain point in each round and you have a better chance of hitting on guys.”

Whatever deals Roseman does or doesn’t make, you know he will have a plan for what he believes is right and what is wrong.

“You should have your list of what you want and the guys you are willing to go get in every round,” said Dominik. “Not only do you have guys you would trade up for or trade back in the first round, but you should have that in the second, third, fourth, etc.

“That’s the beauty of the way the draft is structured with a Thursday night, a Friday night, then a Saturday, it just gives you so much more time to reset.

“Who are the guys I still want to go get or who are the guys that are surprises that are still on the board and go make that move? But you really should have that all figured out prior to the kickoff of the draft on Thursday night, and it shouldn’t be a big, big change from Friday night when the first round is done.”

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Ed Kracz covers the Philadelphia Eagles for SI's EaglesToday.

Please follow him and our Eagles coverage on Twitter at @kracze.

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