NFL Trade Rumors: Eagles open to moving one of their wide receivers

So since it’s a #SlowNewsDay (and also a #SnowNewsDay) and all, I figured I’d mention this nugget I saw about the Eagles from a column recently written by NFL insider Jason La Canfora.

The Eagles are still open to myriad trade possibilities. General manager Howie Roseman loves to make deals and while he’s parting with some players he’s already shopped (Connor Barwin, Chase Daniel), he’s still open to moving center Jason Kelce, linebacker Mychal Kendricks and one of his recently drafted receivers as well, league sources say, after adding Alshon Jeffery and Torrey Smith in free agency already.

Nothing too earth-shattering going on here, but the note about Roseman being open to trading “one of his recently drafted receivers” piques a little interest.

We’ve already heard that the Eagles are open to trading Jordan Matthews, so perhaps it’s him. Matthews is going to be a free agent next offseason as it currently stands. So will Alshon Jeffery and Torrey Smith (if the Eagles don’t pick up Smith’s option). If the Eagles don’t feel like they can or want to retain Matthews, it might be best to get value for him now as opposed to losing him for nothing. Then again, it would be nice to see how Matthews performs in an offense with Jeffery and Smith on the outsides in 2016.

Or perhaps the wide receiver being referenced here is Nelson Agholor. But I’d hesitate to believe that because Roseman wasn’t involved in drafting him. Roseman had been moved out of the team’s personnel department during the 2015 offseason. Agholor was a Chip Kelly pick.

With that said, I’m sure the Eagles wouldn’t mind shipping him out. Philadelphia can’t cut Agholor because it would cause them to lose $2.3 million in cap space, but trading him would save a little over $17,000. I just highly doubt any team is offering anything for Agholor. At best, maybe it could be a bust-for-bust trade (hello, Kyle Fuller).

There’s no question the Eagles’ 2017 wide receiving corps will be a significant upgrade on 2016’s group. But that doesn’t mean the Eagles can’t stop thinking about the future of the position. There’s still work to be done and decisions to be made. Taking a wide receiver at some point in the 2017 NFL Draft is still a necessity.

As for the non-receiver section of La Canfora’s report, we’ve already known Kendricks and Kelce are on the block. It’ll be interesting to see exactly how those situations play out, though.

The Eagles reportedly aren’t cutting Kelce and they’ve publicly said that they want him back. Is the team telling the truth or is it all just posturing? The offensive line is crowded so Kelce still seems like the odd man out here. Maybe the team hopes to use him as a trade chip during the draft. His departure would save the Eagles $3.8 million in cap space.

As for Kendricks, the Eagles kept him past a date his salary became guaranteed. To me, that says the Eagles are confident they can still trade him at some point (perhaps during the draft). You could theorize the Eagles also just want to keep him but I really doubt that. He clearly fell out of favor with the coaching staff last season by only playing less than 30% of the team’s defensive snaps.

La Canfora wasn’t kidding when he said Roseman loves to trade. Sine 2010, Roseman has pulled off twice as many deals as the next most active teams. Just because trades haven’t happened yet doesn’t mean they won’t happen at all. Lots of offseason left. Stay tuned.