Philadelphia Eagles: The Jalen Ramsey-mob continues to grow
If fan reactions on Twitter are of any indication, the Philadelphia Eagles have better trade for Jalen Ramsey and trade for him as soon as possible.
Going into a pivotal – must-win if you will – Week 4 bout against the Green Bay Packers, the Philadelphia Eagles only had four cornerbacks on their active roster.
While this number is a little on the small size, as teams typically activate five with the prevalence of the dime package, it seemed manageable what with the abundance of serviceable safeties in Jim Schwartz‘s secondary.
But in the NFL, things tend to change fast.
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After watching Sidney Jones leave the game in the first half with a hamstring injury, and slot-turned-outside corner Avonte Maddox carted off the field after suffering a scary head-to-head collision with defensive backfield mate Andrew Sendejo, the Eagles left Lambeau Field with a record-tying win – and only two healthy cornerbacks on their roster.
And worse of all, one of those corners just so happens to be Craig James; a UDFA signed away from the Minnesota Vikings twice in as many weeks.
Needless to say, if you moseyed on over to Twitter during the nationally televised Thursday Night Football affair, a score of Eagles-related hashtags were trending nationally, but the top result – at least on my account – was the name of a player who wasn’t on the field at all.
In case you’ve somehow been living under a football-less rock for the last 10 or so days, Jalen Ramsey, the best cornerback in the NFL, is dissatisfied with his long-term prospects with the Jacksonville Jaguars and has asked Tom Coughlin and company for a trade.
While seemingly every team in contention – maybe every team in general – could conceivably use a player like Ramsey, even if he’s about to get paid to the tune of some $18 million a year, no official trades have been placed on the table (as far as we know) due in large part to the Jaguars’ exorbitant asking price (two first-rounders) and a general lack of interest in trading away the generational All-Pro.
But after Week 4’s debut game, I think a very real buyer may have finally materialized.
If the Eagles’ operated their front office using a ‘wisdom of the crowd’-style summation of the fanbases’ desires, Ramsey would be on the team’s flight back from Wisconsin to South Philly, but even if making a multi-draft pick for player swap isn’t as easy IRL as one would assume from playing a game of Madden, that doesn’t mean a deal shouldn’t be considered.
At this point, it may make or break the Eagles Super Bowl aspirations.
You see, as much as we hate it, the Dallas Cowboys are good, like really good in 2019, even if they’ve yet to face off against a top-tier foe. While the Birds should still give them a run for their money in the division, if the Cowboys rise to 4-0 on the strength of a win over the Drew Brees-less New Orleans Saints, it seems all but inevitable that they will finish out the season with a 12-4 record at the minimum.
While trading for Ramsey alone won’t turn the tides of the NFC East, how many games can the Eagles confidently expect to win with their current secondary, even if Maddox, Jones, Ronald Darby, Jalen Mills, and eventually Cre’von LeBlanc are worked back into the fold? 10?
Like it or not, the Philadelphia Eagles are a shutdown cornerback away from being a legitimate problem for any team in the league. If Howie Roseman wants to put his chips on the table and commit to winning this season, specifically with this collection of players for the foreseeable future, he has to admit to an error in judgement and ship a pair of first-rounders – a GM’s prized possession – to the Jacksonville Jaguars to bring Carson Wentz‘s biggest fan Jalen Ramsey (more on that here) to the City of Brotherly Love.