{"id":27129,"date":"2025-11-06T22:31:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T22:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/27129\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T22:31:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T22:31:07","slug":"how-philadelphia-eagles-howie-roseman-won-the-nfl-trade-deadline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/27129\/","title":{"rendered":"How Philadelphia Eagles, Howie Roseman Won The NFL Trade Deadline"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a division with opponents who struggle to roster a functioning kicker for three years<\/a> or remember to take its franchise quarterbac<\/a>k out of a blowout, it feels almost unfair that the Philadelphia Eagles can call on general manager Howie Roseman to improve the team in-season.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s most fascinating about the flurry of moves the Eagles pulled off over the past week, addressing the biggest team needs in the process, is how much of the work to make today\u2019s team better came from either previous trades which made them possible or come with additional factors which will help Roseman make moves tomorrow as well.<\/p>\n

Defensively, the Eagles were clearly most concerned with a pair of limitations \u2014 coverage in the secondary and the team\u2019s pass rush. And it\u2019s interesting to note that Philadelphia isn\u2019t grading out terribly on either front, with the Eagles ranking 12th in overall coverage efficiency<\/a>, per Pro Football Focus, and 13th in pass rush.<\/p>\n

But in Philly, the only acceptable outcome is a Super Bowl, and contrasting their marks to last season\u2019s group<\/a> \u2014 first in coverage, second in pass rush \u2014 says it all. So the Eagles have added a quartet of new players, though the first, Brandon Graham, is certainly familiar to the franchise, having played for only the Eagles since Philadelphia drafted him back in 2010. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we talked in August\u2026 I kind of joked that we weren\u2019t fully ready to hand over the keys and that was because [we] felt like there was still meat on the bone in terms of trying to acquire players and understanding the resources that we had in terms of draft picks to possibly do that,\u201dRoseman said of his conversation with Graham during a media availability on Tuesday. “Before the season started and before we went down any path, I called BG — I\u2019m fortunate really to have special relationships with a bunch of guys here and BG was my first pick. I just reached out and said, \u2018Hey, we’re in the market for an edge rusher, how are you feeling?\u2019 At the time, he just felt like that wasn’t the right timing for him. [Brandon Graham] hadn\u2019t really contemplated, was doing a bunch of other things, but apparently got his mind started moving a little bit and he started working out a little bit harder\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen [former Eagles OLB Za\u2019Darius Smith] Z retired, [I] picked up the phone again and just said, \u2018Hey, I\u2019m just reaching out again. I had heard a little bit through the grapevine; you\u2019re working out a little bit harder.\u2019 I got that little BG cackle, and that kind of gave me a sense that he wanted to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Philadelphia\u2019s pass rush is getting an in-season facelift, between the return of Graham, the acquisition of edge rusher Jaelan Phillips and imminent returns from injury by linebackers Nolan Smith and Jalyx Hunt. And all it cost Roseman was a third-round pick to Miami for Phillips. That\u2019s even more impressive than it sounds at first glance.<\/p>\n

The third-round pick is Philadelphia\u2019s natural pick, and they have another third-rounder. But that one belonged to the New York Jets, who sent it to Philadelphia in the Hassan Reddick deal. The season is not over yet, but the smart money is on the 6-2 Eagles finishing with a better record than the 1-7 Jets, who just held a firesale.<\/p>\n

Moreover, if the Eagles like Phillips, 26, they can work to sign him long-term after the season. And if they choose not to, he will likely generate a compensatory pick for Philly from whoever signs him next. <\/p>\n

Put it this way: there\u2019s a decent chance the Eagles just added four pieces to their pass rush in-season without suffering any net loss in current or future talent at all. As it stands now<\/a>, the Eagles have maintained their own first and second-round picks, while holding onto multiple picks in rounds 3, 4 and 5 in 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur best teams, we\u2019ve been fortunate to be in three Super Bowls over the last eight years, and they\u2019ve been led by our front,\u201d Roseman said. \u201cYou can never have enough pass rushers; you can never have enough cover corners, and they\u2019re hard to find. Getting another player who can get pressure on the quarterback in key situations, those guys are always going to be paramount to our success. When you talk about that room, excited about all those guys in the room. When you can rotate those guys and you can keep them fresh, especially with the talent that you’re talking about that those guys possess, it just opens up all the possibilities to really be a dominant defensive front when you combine our interior defensive line with them as well. Obviously, it’s got to come together on the field, but feel like we\u2019ve got a really good front, and obviously adding Jaelan to that puts a lot of pieces in place to give us the opportunity to be dominant upfront.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the secondary, it has been clear for weeks that the Eagles need additional help at CB2 opposite Quinyon Mitchell. They may not receive the three-time Pro Bowl level that Jaire Alexander played at earlier this decade, but it only cost them a 2026 sixth round pick to find out how close he can come.<\/p>\n

Moreover, Roseman didn\u2019t rely on Alexander\u2019s acquisition alone to fortify the secondary, bringing in nickel back Michael Carter from the aforementioned Jets in exchange for receiver John Metchie. <\/p>\n

In both trades, the Eagles gave up sixth rounders and received seventh rounders. Collectively, they came out of the two deals with the best players to help them now and, somehow, even more draft capital.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the first half of the season showed us how important corner depth is,” Roseman said. “We had a bunch of games here where we didn\u2019t have our full complement of guys. It\u2019s a position that you need to have a bunch of guys here for the amount of games that we\u2019re trying to play.”<\/p>\n

\u2026What we\u2019re really trying to do is we’re trying to be able to match up with all kinds of shapes and sizes at the wide receiver position in the secondary. When you have guys who can do that, it just gives you so much flexibility when you’re going to play different teams and the different types of receivers they have, different types of tight ends, even backs coming out of the backfield. When you talk about Michael Carter, the guy has played at an elite level inside, so that gives you flexibility there.”<\/p>\n

There are no guarantees that in-season trades will work. Just ask Roseman about Linval Joseph or Ndamokong Suh<\/a>, for instance.<\/p>\n

But without depleting future assets, Roseman just addressed his team\u2019s biggest areas of need with multiple new options for head coach Nick Sirianni to deploy.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Giants kicker Graham Gano did not participate in practice again<\/a> on Thursday, and the Commanders haven\u2019t yet ruled Jayden Daniels out<\/a> of Sunday\u2019s game despite a dislocated elbow.<\/p>\n

The difference is almost unfathomably large.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a division with opponents who struggle to roster a functioning kicker for three years or remember to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7965,14940,1418,69,4538,71,70],"class_list":["post-27129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-brandon-graham","tag-howie-roseman","tag-nfl","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-eagles","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}