Philadelphia Eagles: 3 thoughts on the decision to trade back from 6 to 12
By David Esser
The Eagles aren’t committing to Jalen Hurts…yet.
Unless something crazy happens this offseason, the Philadelphia Eagles will be rolling with Jalen Hurts as their starting quarterback in 2021. Trading down from 6 to 12 likely rules the team out of landing any of the top QB prospects, and they simply have no cap space available to bring in further external competition.
With that said, the decision to trade down is by no means the Eagles way of “handing the reigns” over to the before mentioned second-year QB. In a since-deleted tweet, NFL insider Ian Rapoport revealed that Howie Roseman and the Eagles aggressively tried to trade up for BYU’s Zach Wilson prior to their deal with Miami, ultimately backing out because the New York Jets were signaling that they were going to take the highly rated prospect at pick 2.
Not only does the interest in Wilson show the Eagles lack of faith in Hurts as a franchise-caliber arm, but their war chest of first-rounders next year paints the picture of a team potentially looking to move up in the draft. The 49ers just did it to land Justin Fields/Trey Lance – the Eagles could do something similar in 2022.
Not to mention the fact that the Eagles have reportedly remained interested in the likes of Deshaun Watson, despite his pending civil court cases.
Whether you like Hurts or not, it’s not too hard to read the tea leaves here – the Eagles aren’t all that committed to him. Hurts having an insane 2021 season could change that, but as of right now, the Eagles are likely gunning for a new franchise QB next offseason.