Eagles Trade Rumors: ESPN addresses the Calvin Johnson speculation

There’s a new update in the “Calvin Johnson to the Philadelphia Eagles?!” rumor saga.

A lot of people were sharing this tweet on Monday morning.

As it turns out, however, that’s not really what Chris Mortensen said. Here’s a transcript of his appearance on ESPN’s Mike And Mike from Monday morning:

“I’ll say long shot chances. Really, to be honest with you, [Adam Schefter] is my total source here. Adam’s done the reporting on this. And there are some funny stories behind it, which we may not have time to tell.”

“But I’ll say this: the speculation has been the Philadelphia Eagles. Once again, they need a tackle. They’re 7-1. They have only a first round pick next year and three fours. They don’t have a second and third round pick, that’s not good. What’s it going to take to get Calvin Johnson, who, by the way, his base salary is still on the books for $16 million. Calvin has been working out, I guess, but does he really want to play? Jacksonville, their ears are perked up. Chances are, I don’t think it happens. Detroit obviously owns his rights there.”

Yeah, that seems like a whole lot of nothing from Mort there. Nowhere does he say that he knows the Eagles are interested. Mort is just saying there’s speculation out there that the Eagles might want Megatron. And he even admits it’s a “long shot.”

A report emerged on Sunday that the Eagles are “aggressively pursuing” the retired 32-year-old receiver. But then Pro Football Talk came out and denied that the (dubious) report was true.

All the while, NFL insider Jay Glazer is reporting the Eagles will be very active prior to Tuesday’s trade deadline. So who the hell knows at this point.

I still think it’s very unlikely the Eagles go after Johnson, but I wouldn’t rule out them making a trade for a tackle or a linebacker or a running back or something like that.