The Eagles have a pivotal offseason ahead of them. From three first-round picks, to over $30 million in cap space, Howie Roseman has the ammo to pull off several huge moves.
While Eagles fans may be weary about draft night or giving the wrong player a big contract in free agency, the one thing Howie has always been good at is getting over market value on trades. There’s a laundry list of players Howie was able to ship off in order to get great draft capital.
There are a handful of players on the Eagles roster who could be on the move this offseason. Here are four players to keep an eye on once the offseason officially starts and players are able to get traded.
RB Miles Sanders
Miles Sanders may be the least likely player on this list to get traded, but he still fits the bill as a tradable asset. By no means is Sanders a liability for the Eagles. When he’s healthy, he’s easily the best overall back on the roster.
But that’s the thing, Sanders isn’t always healthy. And when he was sidelined this season with various injuries, the Eagles running game didn’t miss a beat. In the four games without Sanders in the lineup, the Eagles averaged 186.5 rushing yards per game. The running game was more explosive with Sanders, as he tallied 20 explosive runs (runs of 10 yards or more) this year, while the rest of the Eagles backfield combined for 24.
That may not be enough to warrant a contract extension, though. Sanders is entering the final year of his rookie deal and could look for a big payday when negotiations start. Paying a running back big money has never been a smart decision — it’s proven time and time again around the league. The Eagles won’t fall into that trap, so trying to get something for Sanders before they lose him for nothing could be in the cards.
Still, it would be surprising if this actually happened this offseason. It’s just something to keep in mind moving forward.
QB Gardner Minshew
When fans point out some of the savvy trades on Roseman’s resume, the Gardner Minshew one is typically cited. The Eagles traded a sixth-round pick for the former Jacksonville Jaguar just before the start of the 2021 season. He started as the third string quarterback, before being elevated to backup following the Joe Flacco trade.
Minshew is a perfectly fine backup at a very low cost. In his lone start of the season, Minshew carved up the Jets secondary to the tune of 242 yards and two touchdowns while completing 80% of his passes. While it is somewhat unlikely, there could be a team out there that views Minshew as a perfect stop-gap quarterback in 2022. If Howie can finagle a third-round pick from said team, there’s no doubt he’d pull the trigger.
The worst case scenario here is that Minshew just remains the Eagles backup for next season. Which in reality, isn’t really a worst case scenario. If the team can get a third-round in return after sending a measly sixth rounder to Jacksonville just one year prior, that would be a job well done by Howie.
LT Andre Dillard
After a pretty disastrous first two years in the NFL, Andre Dillard lost his starting left tackle job to Jordan Mailata during training camp and the team never looked back. In fact, they handed Mailata a hefty contract extension right before the season began, signifying Dillard’s future with the team was likely coming to an end.
Dillard still played quite a bit in 2021, filling in for Mailata when he was injured early in the year. During Dillard’s five starts, he played relatively well and proved that he does belong in this league. There just isn’t room for him along the Eagles offensive line at the moment. He’s a very solid backup to Mailata, but he doesn’t bring any value as a swing tackle and can’t really play any other position along the line.
Given that he was a former first-round pick, Dillard could garner some nice value on the trade block. Couple that with his solid play in 2022, and there could be a team out there that views Dillard as a nice building block along their line. But, considering that Dillard only has one year left on his rookie deal, the Eagles may need to temper their expectations in any draft compensation they’d receive for him.
DT Fletcher Cox
The Eagles really missed the boat on trading Fletcher Cox. Last season would have been their best opportunity to deal the former Pro Bowl talent, but Howie instead opted to restructure his deal, making it more difficult to move him.
The possibility of a Cox trade still remains, but the potential of all the pieces coming together to make a deal happen is unlikely. The Eagles will have a steep asking price for Cox, which was apparent around the trade deadline this past season. Howie tried to deal Cox but there wasn’t a team willing to give up what the Eagles were asking for.
If the Eagles really just want to move on from Cox, they could theoretically do that. But they wouldn’t be saving any money and they wouldn’t get enough value in return.