Eagles Deal Dive: How The D'Andre Swift Trade Came Together
PHILADELPHIA - Nothing had changed all that much from the perspective of D'Andre Swift in Detroit.
While many made note that the Lions gave significant money (for the running back position) to David Montgomery in free agency, Detroit general manager Brad Holmes also let Jamaal Williams and his 17 touchdowns walk to New Orleans.
In Swift's mind, instead of him and Williams headlining the backfield, the up-and-coming Lions were going to feature Montgomery and the fourth-year pro.
The 2020 No. 35 overall pick only saw the actual writing on the wall the minute everyone else did when Holmes leapt at Alabama back Jahmyr Gibbs with the 12th overall pick in last week's draft.
From there, things moved quickly. Less than 48 hours later, Swift, 24, was on his way back home to Philadelphia as a potential lead back for an Eagles running back room in flux after Miles Sanders exited for Carolina in free agency.
Eagles general manager Howie Roseman is going with the Moneyball approach to replacing the 1,269-yard Sanders, as oft-injured Rashaad Penny and now Swift are the lead candidates to get the bulk of the work.
“When they took Gibbs 12th, we thought maybe it was an opportunity,” Roseman said. “They signed Montgomery in free agency and they took Gibbs, and we knew [Swift] was in the last year of his deal.”
Maybe quickly manifested itself into reality for pennies on the dollar after Holmes lost his leverage with his obvious declarations at the position. All Roseman had to do was surrender a little position in the seventh round by swapping picks and adding a 2025 fourth-round pick as a sweetener.
For those who don’t know conventional NFL thinking doesn’t value future picks the same as current ones. For example, a 2024 fourth-round pick would be valued like a fifth-round pick in 2023 so a fourth-rounder two years out equates to a sixth-rounder in the current year.
To be fair to Holmes, Roseman, who is regarded as one of the savviest GMs in the league, has always believed that kind of belief system is an area where the market can be exploited, however.
In the end, the deal made just too much sense for Roseman to haggle over future Day 3 valuations.
“It wasn't in our mind a position that we were actively looking to upgrade [at running back] but at the same time, we're always looking for opportunities to improve the team,” Roseman said. “When this came about, we just felt really good about the player, we felt really good about the person, and it adds another tremendous player and person to our locker room.
“We feel like we really know who he is as a person, have a lot of connections with him.”
Those connections with Swift date back to St. Joe’s Prep in North Philadelphia where one of Roseman’s senior advisors became very close to the RB and his family.
“Dom [DiSandro] has known him and his family for a long time,” Roseman explained. “We knew him really throughout high school. He had been in the [NovaCare Complex] as a high schooler so I had met him when he was in high school.
“It's kind of a cool story of a local kid comes home and obviously a talented local kid.”
For Swift, the trade was emotional.
“Lot of emotions. Lot of emotions all at once,” he said earlier this week. "Now that it’s settled down a couple days into it, excited, happy. Happy for a new opportunity, new chapter in my life, my career.
"I’m excited to be back home.”
Although things didn't go as Swift hoped for in Detroit, topping out at a career-high 617 rushing yards in 2021, he’s always flashed the juice many raved about when he came out of Georgia, be it his yearly 50-yard runs, the ability to catch the football (156 receptions in three seasons), his 25 touchdowns, or the 5.5 yards-per-carry he averaged last season.
“You can definitely see his ability to make people miss in space, and you saw that against our defense last year,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said.
Swift ran for a career-best 144 yards on 15 carries against the Eagles in Week 1 of last season.
“He had some unbelievable runs against us last year, where you look at each other like man, that guy is hard to tackle,” Sirianni said. “So, he has the ability to make you miss and also accelerate through the hole, which will serve us well in some of the draws that we run and some of the RPOs that we run.”
It's hard to imagine a better situation for Swift, who will get to play out the final year of his rookie deal behind perhaps the best offensive line in football and with a quarterback in Jalen Hurts who creates space for running backs by threatening the back side on those RPO and zone-read looks.
“Most definitely,” Swift told Eagles Today when asked about the fit. “Kind of stayed up the last couple of nights just thinking about it. Great opportunity with this offensive line, with this coaching staff.”
It's very early in the process for the Eagles, who kicked off their rookie minicamp on Friday.
“I don't know exactly how we'll use him perfectly with each individual run, you have to get your hands on him to see that, but also in the passing game,” Sirianni said of Swift. “I think he's a dynamic playmaker that's done some things that we've done with guys in the past, with some of the different routes that he runs…. he has a great ability to read defenses out of the backfield, to make guys -- to separate from tight coverage out of the backfield, and has really good hands.”
The lead-back mantle is there for the taking. For now, though, Swift is trying to slow play any chase for that title.
“Taking it day-by-day,” he said. “... I’m here, I’m in Philadelphia, I play for the Eagles. So I’m ready to take on this journey each and every day and just go to work every single day and earn my keep.”
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-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today 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 YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Football 24/7 and a daily contributor to ESPN South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
