Will Jalen Hurts' Eagles Make a QB Trade?
Starting quarterbacks - especially ones like the Philadelphia Eagles employ in Jalen Hurts - don't grow on trees. Solid backups don't, either. But third- and fourth-string quarterbacks?
That's where NFL teams often deceive themselves. And it seems like the Eagles might just be doing that as we approach training camp.
Hurts is an MVP candidate and Marcus Mariota was acquired via a one-year, $8 million contract to be his No. 2. Mariota, once the No. 1 overall pick in his NFL Draft, was a flop last year as the Atlanta Falcons starter. But as a just-in-case bus driver behind Hurts? No problems there.
And now we get to the competition for the third-string job ... and this is where the standard operating procedure in the NFL of personnel departments and coaching staffs fooling themselves comes in.
Vet Ian Book is on the roster. So is rookie Tanner McKee. The Athletic’s Bo Wulf is predicting McKee makes it over Book, and we will buy that. But then the outlet broaches the idea of Philly benefiting from a trade of Book.adding
“McKee is 6 feet 6 and 231 pounds and has the advantage of longer cost control,” writes Wulf. “In an ideal world, (GM Howie) Roseman is able to trade one of the two at the end of the preseason for a draft pick.”
An “ideal world”? That’s well-phrased. After all, how did Philadelphia acquire Book? That happened last summer - when the New Orleans Saints cut him.
That’s the reality here, and the Eagles can look across the aisle at the rival Dallas Cowboys for an example of it.
Cooper Rush - a quiet in-a-pinch hero for the Cowboys last year - is now locked in as Dak Prescott after signing a two-year deal with Dallas. Rush began with the Cowboys but now has his first multi-year contract. And why?
Because from 2020 to 2022, the Cowboys cut Cooper Rush three times before bringing him back again. (In between, the Giants also signed but cut Rush twice.) That’s right; the guy now heralded as “best backup QB in the NFL’ was cut five times in three years.
What really generally happens: Some waiver-wire “Musical Chairs” can take place. But mostly, Team A doesn’t much bother with Team B’s fourth-string quarterback.
Having said that: Talent people think the 6-6 McKee, the sixth-round pick from Stanford, has promise. And Book certainly put up some numbers at Notre Dame. But all the other teams generally think the same think about their QBs who’ve never actually done anything.
“We’re excited to work with the entire (quarterbacks) room,” said Eagles coach Nick Sirianni. We believe that. And we believe the other 31 teams generally feel the same way.
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