Eagles keeping Mychal Kendricks for now, but might trade him later

It seems like the Philadelphia Eagles won’t be cutting Mychal Kendricks this offseason. The team kept him on the roster past the date when $4.35 million of his salary became guaranteed for this year, as Tim McManus reported would happen.

But does that mean the Eagles are keeping Kendricks on the team in 2017? Not necessarily.

It was reported back in February that the Eagles are expected to trade Kendricks. Earlier this week, the Inquirer reported Philadelphia wants at least a fifth-round pick in exchange for the 26-year-old linebacker.

And so it would seem the Eagles are comfortable holding onto Kendricks until they can make a deal. The same situation seems to be happening with Jason Kelce right now.

The problem with wanting to trade these players is that other teams aren’t going to bite if they think Philadelphia is just going to cut them. But now it looks like the Eagles aren’t going to cut them after all.

Maybe being patient will help the Eagles get better value in return for Kendricks and Kelce in the long-run. But other teams could just call Philly’s bluff and then the Eagles would be stuck with two players they don’t necessarily want. Kelce just seems like the odd man out in Philadelphia’s offensive crowded offensive line situation right now. And as for Kendricks, the coaching staff just clearly doesn’t believe in him. He only played roughly 27% of the team’s defense snaps in 2016.

Another concern with the Eagles waiting is that they don’t get any cap relief in the meantime. Trading Kendricks will save $1.8 million. Trading Jason Kelce will save $3.8. That’s $5.6 million that could help towards signing more free agents right now while the Eagles are very tight against the cap.

There’s still plenty of time for trades to happen, so there’s no need to push the panic button just yet. But the Eagles can’t just wait around forever. Eventually some team has to blink.