Eagles were in on Burgess?

Yesterday the Raiders traded former Eagle DE Derrick Burgess to the Patriots. According to Adam Schefter, the Pats beat out the Eagles to his services...

The two teams in on Burgess all along were the Eagles and Pats. Eagles were offering a 3rd-round pick and a player. Pats offer trumped it.

Burgess had been holding out of Raiders camp in an attempt to force a trade. The Patriots reportedly shipped a 3rd and conditional 4th round pick in next year's draft. If they Patriots don't currently have a 5th round pick, but if they are able to acquire a 5th round pick in next year's draft the Raiders will get that instead of the 4th. In other words, the Raiders will get the 5th... [Note by JasonB, 08/07/09 1:57 AM EDT ] There's a number of conflicting reports as to what the actual package was, but it's something like a 3rd and 5th.

New England seems to be a popular landing place for disgruntled Raiders...

With Juqua Parker's recent arrest(and general mediocrity) and Victor Abiamiri's inability to stay healthy, it's no surprise the Eagles were looking to bring in insurance. A 3rd round pick and a player is a strong offer, especially from the Eagles... Makes you think they're really looking hard for more help at DE.

Burgess showed flashes of serious pass rushing ability when he was with the Eagles, but could never stay healthy. When he left for Oakland in 05/06 he had a breakout year with 16 sacks, then followed it up with an 11 sack effort the following year. Since then, injuries have again crept up and Burgess has been in a steady decline. Last yera he managed just 3.5 sacks in 10 games.

Frankly, I don't think the solution to our thin-ness at LDE was to bring in yet another guy who can't stay healthy...