Eagles Howie Roseman Understood Risk Of Trading For Jaelan Phillips

PHILADELPHIA – Jaelan Phillips is the third player on the list of the top 101 free agents put out by NFL Daily host Gregg Rosenthal. That’s going to make it hard for the Eagles to bring back the pass rusher they acquired at the trade deadline for a third-round draft pick.

This is hat Rosenthal wrote: “No NFL player made himself more money in 2025. After dealing with devastating injuries in back-to-back seasons, Phillips was excellent in Miami, then helped transform the Eagles defense with his complete arsenal. His best should still be ahead of him.”

That doesn’t exactly scream, “under the radar.” In fact, quite the opposite. Like most all of the free agents the Eagles have had in past years, there will be a walkaway number for Phillips, just as numbers were in place last year when they lost key free agents Milton Williams and Josh Sweat, among others.

General manager Howie Roseman could very well walk away before he gets very far. Still, the loss of a third-round pick was worth the risk. Roseman knew losing Phillips in free agency was a distinct possibility when he swung the deal with the Dolphins.

Howie Roseman Understood The Risk Of The Trade

“We understood also here's a worst-case situation, which is he's going to be a free agent,” said the GM. “If he leaves as a free agent, you would have to not sign somebody to get the comp pick for next year. Understanding that. And also, the hardest part about free agency is understanding who the player is because you don't live with that person and getting the chance to be with him, and see who he was, obviously, to us is even more additcive.”

Roseman said he and his staff had done a lot of their homework on Phillips when he came into the 2021 draft.

“Obviously, we do a lot of work on these players coming out, and we knew what kind of person Jaelan Phillips was from the time we spent with him in the pre-draft process, and it was confirmed throughout our time with him in Philadelphia,” he said. “Unbelievable worker. Unbelievable leader, incredibly talented player who cares desperately about winning.”

Roseman compared the acquisition of Phillips to sending a 2019 third-round to the Detroit Lions at the 2018 trade deadline to acquire receiver Golden Tate.

Tate was a half-season rental and left in free agency, with the Eagles receiving a compensatory pick for the loss. The difference was that Tate had a huge catch to secure a playoff win over the Bears, when he caught a slant from Nick Foles on fourth-and-goal with 56 seconds left in the fourth quarter and Philly trailing Chicago, 15-10.

“Sometimes I think about the Golden Tate trade, and I say it a lot of times, if you tell me that I can trade a third-round pick to win a playoff game, I'll do it every day of the week, every day of the week,” said the GM. “I don't know that I can trade three thirds because we don't have them to win three playoff games, but I would do it. And so, from my perspective, that gave us a shot in the arm. The defense obviously played really well throughout the course of the season and took another step when he was here. So, we understood, and we understood the risk of that.”

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