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Home International Does Eagles GM trade deadline wrecking ball answer Jalen Hurts question?

Does Eagles GM trade deadline wrecking ball answer Jalen Hurts question?

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PHILADELPHIA − There’s one thing that should be understood about this Eagles‘ season and possibly next year as well, and that is these were always going to be transition years.

It’s just that the Eagles’ definition of transition was remaining a playoff team while watching the old guard eventually move on, gradually replaced by the young players drafted over the past few years as they sign second contracts. Eagles general manager Howie Roseman hoped to accomplish this by saving salary cap space for those players by trading away high-priced players and signing low-cost free agents.

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It was a difficult needle to thread. And when the string broke − through Lane Johnson’s retirement, Jalen Hurts’ blood clots, injuries to DeVonta Smith and Saquon Barkley, among others, while adapting poorly to a new offensive system − the transition took on another meaning.

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As in, accelerate the process. That was evident as the NFL trade deadline passed at 4 p.m. on Nov. 10.

That goes beyond the Eagles trading defensive tackle Jordan Davis to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Nov. 9, eight months after the Eagles signed him to a three-year extension worth as much as $78 million. The Eagles got back the Jaguars’ first-round pick in 2027 and second-round pick in 2029 for someone who barely plays 50% of the defensive snaps.

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But the dye on this Eagles’ sell-off had been cast long before that. Roseman, in fact, began the process in June when he traded wide receiver A.J. Brown to the New England Patriots to get a first-round pick in 2028. He continued it in October, trading center Cam Jurgens to Baltimore one day after Johnson unexpectedly retired, getting back a second-round pick in 2028.

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Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Joe Milton (14) during warmups against the New York Giants on Nov. 8 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

(Eric Hartline, IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect)

For those keeping track, the Eagles now have a combined 13 picks in the first three rounds of the next three drafts. That can comb over a lot of previous mistakes.

There has been a good deal of them. After all, a team doesn’t lose seven in a row by accident as the Eagles have in falling to 2-7.

So no, this hasn’t been a good year for Roseman.

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The trade last spring for edge rusher Jonathan Greenard, along with his four-year extension worth as much as $100 million, hasn’t panned out in part because Greenard hasn’t been healthy. The low-cost free agent signings, mainly because of the Eagles’ salary cap situation, haven’t made much of a difference.

And neither have the Eagles’ recent draft picks.

In 2025, the Eagles drafted linebacker Jihaad Campbell in the first round and safety Drew Mukuba in the second round. Campbell was supposed to replace Nakobe Dean, whom the Eagles allowed to leave in free agency last spring. But that hasn’t worked out. Campbell was losing playing time to Jeremiah Trotter Jr., even before missing the last two games with hamstring and quad injuries.

Mukuba has been a starter ever since his first game as a rookie. But he hasn’t played as well this season.

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This spring, the Eagles drafted wide receiver Makai Lemon in the first round, tight end Eli Stowers in the second round and tackle Markel Bell in the third round. The jury is still out on all three, although Lemon has played better over the last three games while Bell has had a tough time replacing Johnson. That’s understandable. Johnson is likely headed to the Hall of Fame.

Stowers is only getting on the field now.

EAGLES’ MAJOR TRADE: Eagles trading DT Jordan Davis to Jaguars. What they’re getting back

This is what the rest of the season is for: to see if the young players can play. The extra draft picks afford Roseman and the Eagles to draft over those players if they can’t.

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And while the Eagles will have a tight salary-cap situation in 2027 with the dead money hits on Brown, Jurgens, Johnson’s retirement, and now Davis, all of that money is freed up in 2028.

All of that brings us here, to the Jalen Hurts question, perhaps the Eagles’ biggest question of all.

By trading away three cornerstone players, among the injuries and Johnson’s retirement and Hurts’ blood clots, the Eagles are clearly one of the worst teams in the NFL. If that continues through the rest of the season, as it should, then the Eagles will be rewarded with a top-five pick in the NFL draft.

And if there’s a quarterback in that range whom the Eagles like, well, it’s possible they could draft Hurts’ successor.

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After all, there are many questions that the Eagles have to answer with Hurts. The first is his future health. Blood clots are not like a torn ACL where you rehab for a certain amount of time, then return. There’s no guarantee that the blood clots won’t return, in which case Hurts might have to retire.

The other part of the equation is money. Ideally, Hurts has two-plus seasons remaining on his five-year extension worth as much as $255 million. But his salary-cap hit for 2029, a void year, balloons to $97 million. Ideally, a second extension, perhaps as soon as next spring, pushes that money four or five years down the road as the Eagles commit to Hurts into the mid-2030s.

That decision isn’t so simple anymore. And if the Eagles aren’t giving Hurts that extension, then they have to find a way to account for that massive salary cap hit.

That’s not impossible, especially with a young QB on a rookie contract.

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At least Roseman gave himself some flexibility to address all of those issues with his trades over the past five months. You can wipe away a lot of mistakes and unforeseen circumstances with extra draft picks.

Ideally, Roseman wanted to do this while the Eagles were still contenders. They’re not. So the wrecking ball came out and now we’re left to see how the Eagles build back from the destruction.

Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on X @Mfranknfl. Sign up for the “Eye On The Eagles” newsletter, emailed to your inbox every Friday morning. Read his coverage of the Eagles‘ championship season in “Flying High,” a hardcover coffee-table book from Delaware Online/The News Journal. Details at Fly.ChampsBook.com

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Does Eagles GM trade deadline wrecking ball answer Jalen Hurts question?

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