The Philadelphia Eagles ended up being neither buyers nor sellers ahead of the 2020 NFL trade deadline. Howie Roseman decided to sit tight with the NFL’s second most expensive roster that owns a 3-4-1 record heading into a Week 9 bye. It was a pretty quiet deadline for most teams around the league.
2020 marks the first season in several years that the Eagles didn’t add a player right ahead of the deadline. The team previously traded for Jay Ajayi in 2017, Golden Tate in 2018, and Genard Avery in 2019. The Ajayi deal ended up being a good move as he helped Philly win a Super Bowl but the other two weren’t so smart.
To Roseman’s credit, he avoided lighting a draft pick on fire at the deadline this year, so that’s good to see. It would’ve been frustrating to see the Eagles be delusional about their current status and operate with short-term thinking in an effort to win a really bad division.
On the downside, it could’ve been nice to see them sell some veteran players. But guys like Zach Ertz and DeSean Jackson weren’t eligible to be traded after going on injured reserve. No one wanted to take on Alshon Jeffery’s albatross contract.
The Eagles can still tweak their roster with waiver claims (all players are now subject to them for the rest of the season) and practice squad poachings and whatnot. For the most part, though, their current group is set for the rest of the 2020 season. We’ll find out if it’s good enough to win the abysmal NFC East.
