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Shortly after the news of the Philadelphia Eagles’ trade for Michael Bennett emerged, NFL insider Ian Rapoport reported that the deal stalled a day before it was announced.
The #Eagles had a deal with the #Seahawks yesterday morning for DL Michael Bennett. Then a third team jumped in and the deal stalled. Last night, it became clear it was happening, though Philly officials were still researching. Now it’s happened.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 7, 2018
Rapoport later revealed that the New England Patriots were the mystery team. And they reportedly offered even more to the Seattle Seahawks than the Eagles did.
Let's try this again... @RapSheet said with @IanFurnessSea the Patriots offered a 3rd round pick for Michael Bennett and a 5th round pick. The Seahawks went forward with the Philly deal because the NE deal came in late and Seattle would have looked horrible to go back on Philly.
— Jackson Felts (@JacksonKJR) March 7, 2018
Assuming this report is true, that’s pretty crazy. The Patriots’ offer is significantly more valuable than what the Eagles gave up.
If you go by the draft pick trade value chart, the Patriots were offering a pick worth 120 points in exchange for Bennett and a pick worth 23.8 points. That means Bennett himself was worth about 92.6 points to the Patriots, which equates to the second pick of the fourth round (No. 102 overall).
The Eagles, by contrast, offered Seattle a pick worth 28.6 points and Marcus Johnson in exchange for Bennett and a pick worth one point. That means the Eagles basically got Bennett for the value of 27.6 points, which equates to a late fifth-rounder (No. 159 overall).
As we pointed out yesterday, the Eagles essentially traded Johnson and Matt Tobin for Bennett. Those are two fringe players who weren’t even guaranteed to make Philadelphia’s final roster. There shouldn’t be any question the Eagles got good value.
This news about the Patriots making a better offer, though, is further proof Howie Roseman did a good job. He paid under the market price in order to land a very good player at a premium position. Hats off to Howie.
Now, if you’re the Seahawks, I don’t know how you turn down the Patriots’ offer. It’s obviously better. Plus Seattle would get Bennett out of the NFC.
I understand the whole “don’t want to tarnish a business relationship” premise, but ... maybe the Seahawks SHOULD want to ruin their connection with the Eagles considering how Roseman keeps robbing them. First the Tobin trade, now this. I guess you could go back and count the Fletcher Cox trade in the 2012 NFL Draft as well.
Oh, and how sweet is it that the Eagles already beat the Patriots for a second time this year? It’ll be even better when Philadelphia and New England meet again in next year’s Super Bowl and Bennett reprises Brandon Graham’s role for the game-winning strip-sack on Tom Brady this time around.