Eagles' Path to Upgrade at QB Narrows After Russell Wilson Trade
For months the Eagles' quarterback situation inside the NovaCare Complex has been a lot clearer than it's perceived to be from the outside.
If there was a path to a significant upgrade at the game's most important position Philadelphia would explore it but the Eagles are happy enough with the development of Jalen Hurts that lateral moves or even nominal veteran upgrades wouldn't be considered.
In other words, if the home run proved to be in play the Eagles would swing for the fences.
The definition of that inside the organization boiled down to two players: Russell Wilson and Deshaun Watson, because the "complicated fella" from Green Bay was never going to consider Philadelphia.
Turns out Russell Wilson had the same sentiment as Aaron Rodgers.
Because it was unlikely that the Eagles were going to pull off trades for Wilson or Watson, the Eagles' strategy has been to line up behind Hurts publicly while leaving the door slightly ajar just in case which is why Howie Roseman chooses the language he does while discussing the QB position.
“We have Jalen Hurts who’s a 23-year-old quarterback, who led his team to the playoffs, and he’s going to get better and better and better," Roseman said at the NFL's scouting combine last week, “He’s going to do everything possible to get better, and we have to do our part in that.”
Wilson is now completely out of the equation for the Eagles after Denver decided to send a king's ransom to Seattle to acquire the nine-time Pro Bowl selection and Super Bowl winner, leaving Watson and his legal entanglements as the only roadblock between Hurts and September.
Over a dozen teams checked in on Wilson's availability in recent weeks, according to an NFL source and the Eagles were one of them.
The question locally is whether Philadelphia made an actual offer for the superstar and the answer depends on what one means by offer.
Wilson had a full no-trade clause and he and his agent Mark Rodgers could steer the veteran's ultimate landing spot. For whatever reason, Wilson didn't want to play on the East Coast, a sentiment that carried down the I-95 corridor to the Beltway as the Commanders offered a much more defined pitch to the Seahawks and were turned away.
Coupling Wilson's issue on moving east was Seattle's desire to trade him out of the conference which matched up well with Denver's interest in Wilson and the QB's desire to be with the Broncos.
In essence, the Eagles were down 0-2 in the count before they could even think about swinging for the fences.
The thought around the league, for what it's worth, is that the Eagles wouldn't have had an issue with the potential draft-pick compensation - two first-round picks, two second-round picks, a fifth-round with a future mid-round pick coming back - along with a QB going back and two starting-level players.
Players being peddled by the Eagles would have likely been Hurts or backup Gardner Minshew, Andre Dillard, and perhaps Miles Sanders.
From Seattle's side "an offer" by the Eagles was made but specifics were never addressed because Wilson wasn't about to entertain the landing spot.
Moving forward the Eagles have been linked to Watson, 26, for months by many around the league despite serious sexual misconduct allegations that are still hanging over the QB's head from both a criminal and civil perspective.
Watson, however, also has a no-trade clause and has been unwilling to waive it for the Eagles when Miami and Carolina made serious pitches to acquire the embattled star last season.
The Dolphins, Watson's preferred landing spot, even agreed to acquire him at the trade deadline despite all the legal hurdles as long as the QB was able to settle the 22 civil allegations against him.
Reportedly, Watson and his attorney Rusty Hardin only were able to get 18 of the 22 accusers to agree to settle on short notice but the Dolphins' willingness to pull the trigger highlights the belief that many around the league believe that Watson's isn't in all that much danger from a criminal perspective.
More clarity on that front will come later this week when the Harris County district attorney Kim Ogg places the case in front of a grand jury.
When specifically asked about Watson last week, Roseman didn't slam the door shut like Miami GM Chris Grier now has.
“I think you kind of come here and you kind of start hearing some things about what’s going on at each position,” Roseman said. “And you just try to gather information. I’m not talking about the quarterback position, I’m talking about in general. You try to gather information about what’s going on and what opportunities there are to improve our football team.”
Roseman, however, did explain his default DNA as a roster-builder when taking in generalities recently on the Eagles' website with Dave Spadaro.
"It’s really hard to win a Super Bowl. Right? You see all of these great players who maybe have one Super Bowl win and you look at those guys and you go, ‘Man, how do those guys only have one Super Bowl win? These are great, great players,’" the GM said. "Well, it’s hard. It’s hard to be that last team standing. You need so many things to go right.
"And, so, if you just do things that are down the middle, the way the league kinda sets this up, yeah, you may win 10 games, you may make the playoffs. But it’s hard to be world champions. It’s hard for the confetti to fall on your head when you do things like that. So, you have to be willing to at least be out of the box, put yourself out there. And if you do that, yeah, there’s some risk involved in that, but there’s also a tremendous upside."
-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on both PhillyVoice.com and YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
