Philadelphia Eagles: Howie Roseman had a deal in place for Calvin Ridley

Boy, oh boy, what could have been.

On a day that should have been all about the returns of Jason Kelce to the Philadelphia Eagles and of Ben Simmons to the Wells Fargo Center, Jay Glazer swooped in and let slip a nugget of information that could have lasting ramifications for years to come in the City of Brotherly Love: Howie Roseman tried to trade for Calvin Ridley.

Yes, you read that correctly. Howard “Howie” Roseman “had (a) deal done for Calvin Ridley last month” only to watch it dissolve when the player in question was handed a one-year suspension from the league for gambling on games.

… whoa, a lot to unpack here, most of it good, but a lot nonetheless.

The Philadelphia Eagles are looking to spend big on a veteran wide receiver.

Alright, so what did the Philadelphia Eagles’ failed trade for Calvin Ridley tell us?

Well, for one, the Eagles were willing to spend premium draft capitols, anywhere from a first-round pick to a pair of Day 2 picks, for a wide receiver. Regardless of the actual compensation surrendered, if the Eagles did make a deal centered around a top-100 pick, it would mark the fourth-straight season Roseman used such a pick on the wide receiver position, with the potential to double-down on the position via the draft.

We also learned that Roseman was willing to take on Ridley’s cap hit of $11.116 million in a trade with the Falcons, which isn’t quite the going rate for a legit top-flight free agent wideout – for reference, Mike Williams just signed a three-year, $60 million deal with the Los Angeles Chargers – but is pretty darn close. Granted, a deal for Ridley could have included an extension, one that shaved a few bucks off of his 2022 cap hit in favor of more money down the line, but it feels more likely that such a deal would be worth more than $11 million per season in AAV, not less.

Assuming the Eagles have $10-14 million tabbed for an upgrade at wide receiver, Roseman should have a pretty good opportunity to upgrade his roster with a veteran presence, as players like DJ Chark, Allen Robinson, and JuJu Smith-Schuster could all be had in that financial neighborhood, give or take.

And last but not least, we get to Ridley, the player, and how he would have fit into the Eagles’ receiving corps.

On paper, if Quez Watkins remains in the slot – the position he played roughly two-thirds of his snaps at in 2021 – and DeVonta Smith transitions over to the flanker spot, where his lack of bulk could be mitigated by starting a bit further off the line, Ridley could play the X wide receiver spot as his standard base package position. Granted, that trio of receivers are all more-or-less interchangeable, with Watkins recording the longest play of the 2021 season on a go-route on the outside, and both Smith and Ridley having an ability to gash defenses from the interior, but when you consider the Eagles’ inability to get open on the outside, all eyes would have turned to the team’s newly acquired elder statesman to get physical and open on the interior.

Can Ridley fill that role? Sure, he played on the line a ton for the Falcons during his post-Julio Jones tenure with the team, but is he a prototypical X? No, not at 6-foot-1, 190 pounds.

Did Roseman target Ridley because of his position versatility and would again look for a player like Treylon Burks in the draft or JuJu Smith-Schuster, who could play inside and out? Or would a player like Allen Robinson, who is a true blue X receiver, make more sense?

That, my friends, will be very interesting to see.

Could the Philadelphia Eagles opt to avoid wide receivers in free agency and instead turn their attention to the draft? Sure. Alternatively, could the Eagles spend big on a free agent wide receiver and focus on the defensive side of the ball through the first three rounds of the 2022 NFL Draft? That’s possible too. How about splitting the difference, procuring a younger veteran wide receiver on a sub-$10 million deal and then using a draft pick – be that 19, 51, or 83 – on a receiver? That’s probably the most likely outcome and the one that makes the most sense, considering the circumstances. What we won’t see, however, is Calvin Ridley in a midnight green uniform, that is, unless he comes out to a game and reps a jersey to support his former college quarterback Jalen Hurts.