Philadelphia Eagles Rumor: The Ravens pursued a trade for Jalen Reagor

There isn’t a player on the Philadelphia Eagles‘ roster who generates more interactions than Jalen Reagor. Fans want to see him gone, the front office clearly doesn’t view him as a core performer moving forward, and even the player himself has removed the Birds from his social media accounts on multiple occasions, with the team only recently coming back into favor with the TCU product.

Is a conscious uncoupling the best move for both parties? Frankly, yes; at best, Reagor is going to spend 2022 as the Eagles’ primary return man, which, based on his performance in 2021, might not be a good thing. While saying goodbye to a former first-round pick after only two completed seasons is never a fun feeling, neither is holding onto a player who isn’t working in the hopes that things magically work themselves out in Year 3, 4, or even 5.

With that being said, Reagor isn’t a completely depressed asset.

Need proof? Well, the Baltimore Ravens, who have one of the best front offices in the NFL, reportedly tried to trade for the Philadelphia Eagles’ WR…5(?) during the 2022 NFL Draft and offered up a very interesting player indeed in exchange for the former first-round pick.

Could Baltimore solve the Philadelphia Eagles’ safety problem?

Chuck Clark is a professional NFL safety.

Whether deployed deep or down in the box, Clark is a solid, do-it-all safety who can make plays in the run, make plays in zone coverage, and even contribute as an occasional pass rusher, as his 20 pressures and 3.5 sacks on 196 blitzes over the past three years clearly shows. While he isn’t the second coming of Isaiah Simmons, Earl Thomas, or Tyrann Mathieu, Clark has recorded at least one pick in each of the last four seasons and has only allowed just 1,059 yards and eight touchdowns on 151 targets over the same time period.

In a league where safety might just be the scheme-specific player on the defensive side of the ball, Clark’s ability to do a little bit of everything makes him a solid if not spectacular plug-‘n-play performer in virtually any defensive scheme across the NFL, especially ones that deploy a two safety shell as their base look.

Goodness, if Clark is so good, why, you may ask, would the Baltimore Ravens offer him up in a trade with the Philadelphia Eagles for Jalen Reagor? Well, because they lucked into Kyle Hamilton with the 14th pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, and the Notre Dame product will likely steal his spot in the starting lineup this fall.

Factor in Clark’s cap hit of roughly $4.6 million and the Ravens’ newfound need at wide receiver, as they traded away Hollywood Brown on night one of the draft but failed to replace him with any of their 11 picks, and such a deal actually makes a good bit of sense for Eric DeCosta and company, especially when you consider they reportedly really wanted to draft Calvin Austin out of Memphis, who has a similar playing style to Reagor.

So why wasn’t DeCosta’s offer – which isn’t totally known but did reportedly did include Clark – reciprocated? Why did Howie Roseman reportedly turn it down and then double-down on his support for Reagor during media availability?

Pride? Stubbornness? A concerted devaluation of the safety position? Honestly, your guess is as good as mine.

Who knows, maybe the Philadelphia Eagles have it right. Maybe Jalen Reagor will leapfrog Zach Pascal and Quez Watkins to become Nick Sirianni’s slot receiver of the future, maybe Marcus Epps will turn his promising third season into a long-term starting role, and maybe we’ll all look back at this situation and laugh about it later. Or maybe, just maybe, things will fall apart, and fans will lament the decision to hold onto Reagor while Epps, K’Von Wallace, and company struggle to defend half of the field opposite Anthony Harris. Either way, we will find out soon enough.