Eagles GM Leaves No Stone Unturned With Nine Trades Since Early August

Howie Roseman boiled his job as the general manager of the Eagles to one sentence: “It's our job to make sure that no stone is left unturned when we're trying to acquire talent.”

There’s more to it than that of course, but basically that’s what he does, and does it as well as any general manager in the NFL. Three Super Bowl trips in eight years with a 2-1 record in those games would attest to that.

He began turning over stones before training camp, and that stone-flipping continued right through Tuesday’s trade deadline as the GM made nine trades since the start of camp in July.

“I think, at first, it starts with an overall philosophy that we could upgrade every spot,” he said. “We can upgrade every spot on our practice squad, on our 53-man roster. With that mentality, looking for any edges. If there's an incremental difference in a player, we owe it to our team, to our fans, to our building, to our owner, to do that. Sometimes these opportunities come at positions that maybe we don't perceive as needs, but feel like it's hard to acquire talented young players.”

Revisiting 9 Trades With Roseman's Takes

Here are the nine:

-Acquired Jakorian Bennett and a seventh-round pick in 2026 for Thomas Booker.

-Acquired John Metchie and a sixth-round pick in 2026 for Harrison Bryan and a 2026 fifth-round selection.

-Acquired Sam Howell for a picks in the fifth round of 2026 and seventh round of 2027.

-Acquired Fred Johnson for a 2027 sixth-round pick.

-Acquired a 2027 sixth-round pick for Darian Kinnard.

-Acquired Tank Bigsby for picks in the fifth and sixth rounds of 2026.

-Acquired Michael Carter and a seventh-round pick in 2027 for Metchie and a sixth-rounder in 2027.

-Acquired Jaire Alexander for a 2026 sixth-round pick.

-Acquired Jaelan Phillips for a 2026 third-round pick.

“I think when I look at Tank Bigsby, I'm happy with our running backs,” said Roseman. “Obviously, I think we’ve got the best player in the world at that position. Love Will (Shipley), love AJ (Dillon. Just evaluating Tank and the skillset that he had, (we) just felt like it's hard to find guys like that on rookie deals who have that level of explosiveness and that talent in their body. It may not scream like a need, but for us, it felt like we have to continue to add talent.”

Last year, the Eagles played 21 games. That’s a marathon that Roseman knows how to run, as they went 18-3 in those 21 games and won their second Super Bowl.

“Depth is important,” he said. “Having really good players everywhere along your 53-man roster is important. I think it starts with that mindset and that attitude, but with the same balance because you're trying to balance everything like a seesaw, understanding that we're going to have needs coming forward and we don't want to give up picks just to give up picks.”

It's why they went out and got Fred Johnson back after he left for Jacksonville in free agency.

“We have some young players we like at that position, but (he brings) stability at that offensive tackle position,” said the GM.

It’s why they landed Sam Howell for the quarterback room and claimed Xavier Gipson off the waiver wire.

“We just felt like having three quarterbacks who you have tremendous confidence in was a great way to go into the season,” said Roseman. “…just because we had a lot of picks, we weren't trying to be aggressive with the picks just to get rid of them. Every trade had to have the right value. We love having a lot of picks. They give us tremendous opportunity to improve our football team in the offseason, but we felt like when we evaluate all of these moves, they made sense from our perspective. We'll see how they work out.”

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