Eagles RB D'Andre Swift Signs With Bears as RB Market Heats Up Early
PHILADELPHIA – If Howie Roseman was planning on playing a game of chicken in the free-agent running back market, well, he might want to start clucking.
The NFL’s legal tampering period wasn’t even an hour old on Monday when news broke that a pair of running backs had agreed to three-year contracts, each worth about $8 million per year.
So much for the depressed running-back market the past few seasons.
One of those running backs to agree to terms as soon as the tampering period began at noon was D’Andre Swift, who signed a three-year, $24 million deal with the Chicago Bears. He spent last year with the Philadelphia Eagles and made it count, posting the first 1,000-yard rushing season of his career. As part of the compensation to acquire Swift from the Detroit Lions last year, the Eagles sent away a fourth-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.
D'Andre Swift
John McMullen/Eagles Today
That’s a pretty steep price to pay for a one-year rental. General manager Howie Roseman, however, reportedly made an offer to Swift before the tampering period began but Swift chose to wait it out and see what he could get on the open market, per ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.
The other running back to agree to terms was Tony Pollard, who moved from the Dallas Cowboys to the Tennessee Titans.
Pollard was believed to be a possible Eagles target based on his relationship with new Philly offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.
Not long after Swift and Pollard came off the board so did Josh Jacobs, who is moving from the Las Vegas Raiders to the Green Bay Packers.
The Eagles have been linked to Saquon Barkley in many reports, but the price will be more than what we’ve seen the Eagles do at that position in more than a decade, probably not since 2012 when they gave LeSean McCoy a new five-year contract extension.
There has been talk that Barkley might be willing to give the Eagles a “hometown” discount since he grew up an hour outside the city in the Lehigh Valley and played his high school ball at Whitehall before staying in-state to play at Penn State.
Other names still out there include Derrick Henry and Austin Ekeler. They will probably be expensive.
Others that may not cost as much who could be available to Philly are J.K. Dobbins, A.J. Dillon, Devin Singletary, and Zach Moss.
No matter who it is, Roseman may have to alter his plan of letting the dust settle on the market and forget about his game of chicken.
