Philadelphia Eagles’ Trade Has Risks, But Don’t Hold the Washington Redskins’ Mistakes Against Them
By Mike Lacy
The Philadelphia Eagles’ trade is risky, but we shouldn’t let other teams’ mistakes convince us that this was a bad move.
Throughout the offseason, the Philadelphia Eagles made it known that they sought their quarterback of the future. Many of their moves were made with the goal that they would put themselves in a position to draft a quarterback early in the first round. After yesterday’s mega-trade, the Philadelphia Eagles are expected to select one of the top two quarterbacks in this year’s draft class: Jared Goff or Carson Wentz. (While it isn’t official, most pundits believe that they prefer – and will ultimately pick – Wentz.)
Critics of the trade think that surrendering that many draft picks for a single player – especially one who likely won’t see the field in 2016 – is foolish and will cripple the team’s ability to build a winner. They point to other instances where teams sent large quantities of draft picks for a single player, and it ended up backfiring on them. The most prominent example is the Redskins’ 2012 trade to draft Robert Griffin III.
I feel it isn’t fair to compare the Philadelphia Eagles to the Washington Redskins. The Redskins have been a dysfunctional mess since the late ’90s and have botched most of their moves. Just because one team made a mistake doesn’t mean that it’s always a mistake to make a trade such as this. Besides, taking a closer look at the teams’ situations show that there are some major differences between them.
Some believe that by giving up so many draft picks, the Redskins hindered their ability to build a good team around Griffin. While having more draft picks would have certainly helped, the Redskins didn’t use the picks they had very well either. It should also be noted that the Redskins had far more holes than the Philadelphia Eagles now do. They were coming off a 5-11 season, and while quarterback play was the most prominent reason for the poor record, there were plenty of other problems too.
Unfortunately for the Redskins, they weren’t able to supplement their roster via free agency either. Thanks to spending violations, the Redskins were docked $18 million from their salary cap spending in 2012 and 2013. Not only could they build up their talent level via the draft, they were also limited in how productive they could be in free agency.
Look at the Philadelphia Eagles’ roster at it now stands: There are no glaring holes, as the team appears to at least have a competent starter at each position. While there are some areas where they could definitely use an upgrade or added depth, it’s nothing like last year when everyone could see that the offensive line was going to be a problem. This might not be a Super Bowl contender, but the roster is far from a wasteland either. The future quarterback will likely be stepping into a better situation than what Griffin dealt with.
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The Redskins also didn’t do themselves any favors with how they handled Griffin’s early career. It isn’t clear who decided that Griffin would be the starter from week one of his rookie season. It could have been coach Mike Shanahan. He was entering his third year as head coach, and the team had gone 11-21 in his first two seasons. While his Super Bowl winning credentials earned him some job security, many coaches don’t survive three straight losing seasons, especially when working for an owner as notoriously impetuous as Dan Snyder.
It probably wasn’t the best for Griffin’s career to put him on a bad team and have him win games by throwing his body around with abandon, but it was good for Shanahan’s short-term job security. Consider Shanahan’s other options: He’d already seen what Rex Grossman could do, and the only other quarterback was another rookie (Kirk Cousins) who was even less ready for the NFL than Griffin was at the time.
Even if Shanahan wanted to keep Griffin benched, it’s doubtful that he would have been allowed to. After giving up so much to get him, Snyder wasn’t going to allow his new star to sit on the bench. Griffin was the new focus of the team’s marketing campaign and the new shining hope for the franchise.
The Philadelphia Eagles seem to have a different plan in mind. The Eagles have repeatedly said that they see value in having a quarterback sit and learn for at least the first year of his career, and based on the amount of money they’re paying Sam Bradford and Chase Daniel in 2016, they likely mean it. There’s still debate over how good Sam Bradford is, but at the very least he seems like an adequate starter until the rookie is ready. They also have a decent backup in place in Daniel, so even if Bradford falters or gets hurt, the rookie won’t be rushed into action.
I also hope that if the quarterback does experience some success, Jeffrey Lurie won’t befriend him the way Dan Snyder reportedly did with Griffin, which undermined the head coach’s authority. Perhaps in a different environment, Griffin would have been more receptive to the coach’s suggestions and would have worked harder to improve.
Since the Philadelphia Eagles appear prepared to avoid those mistakes, does this mean they made a good trade? Have they definitely found their long-term answer at quarterback? Of course not. The trade will only be a success if Wentz lives up to the immense expectations. After all, back when Griffin looked like a star, most people said that trade was worth it.
I’ll admit that I know nothing about Carson Wentz, and have no basis for saying he will or won’t be a success. I know the Philadelphia Eagles have done a massive amount of research on him, but has there ever been a first round draft pick – especially a quarterback – for whom a team hasn’t done intense research? There were smart and experienced NFL personnel men who once thought JaMarcus Russell and Ryan Leaf were worthy of top two picks.
My worry is that the Philadelphia Eagles have been so focused on finding their franchise quarterback that they’ve overrated Wentz. We’ve heard a lot of talk about the need for a franchise quarterback, and that the Eagles likely won’t win a Super Bowl until they find one. Has that mindset influenced the way they’ve been looking at these quarterbacks? Not every draft class contains a star quarterback, and just because Wentz may be the best of the bunch, it doesn’t mean that he’s the right choice. It certainly doesn’t make him worthy of surrendering a massive haul of draft picks to get him.
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Hopefully, the Eagles are correct, and Wentz does turn out to be the star quarterback they’ve been seeking. Otherwise, they’ll end up serving as a cautionary tale for the next team looking to trade up to the top of the draft.