I didn’t get to hear Doug Pederson on his weekly phone call with Angelo Cataldi, but 94 WIP shared this snippet about an hour ago:

“Stay tuned… we’ll see what happens.”

Interesting.

WIP doesn’t have the full audio up on their website, so I don’t know what the full context of the quote is, but the Eagles improving to 4-4 and playing in a winnable division would certainly justify a higher level of sniffing around ahead of tomorrow’s 4 p.m. trade deadline.

For starters, I don’t want anything to do with DeSean Jackson or LeSean McCoy. We’ve been there and done that. Let’s move this thing forward instead of trying to correct every Chip Kelly mistake dating back multiple seasons now. Shady is 30 years old with some off-field baggage and D-Jax turns 32 in a few weeks.

Le’Veon Bell is best move, but he’s a free agent next season. The Birds have about $11 million cap space after restructuring Fletcher Cox, so they can fit in Bell’s $7.75 million dollar hit with no issues. This is more of a “win now” move but I don’t know if Bell alone wins you the NFC Championship game in New Orleans or Los Angeles.

DeVante Parker is an interesting name, but I don’t know how much of an improvement he is over Jordan Matthews. He’s 25 years old and coming off a big game against Houston, but Jackson makes more sense if they trade for a wide receiver, because the Eagles really don’t have a true deep threat on the roster.

I’m interested in the safety market. Ha Ha Clinton-Dix is apparently on the block with Karl Joseph. Clinton-Dix makes more sense because he’s a free safety while Joseph is a hard-hitting strong safety.

Without Sidney Jones, Corey Graham, Rodney McLeod, and now Jalen Mills, the Birds’ nickel defense looks like this:

  • outside corner – Ronald Darby
  • outside corner – Rasul Douglas
  • slot corner – Dexter McDougle
  • strong safety – Malcolm Jenkins
  • free safety – Avonte Maddox

And then it’s Tre Sullivan in dime. You really don’t have anyone else to turn to.

So depending on the health of Graham and Jones moving forward, they really could use help at free safety, which would at least allow Avonte Maddox to go back into the slot where McDougle is playing. Problem is, then you have McLeod coming back next season alongside Jenkins while Clinton-Dix becomes an unrestricted free agent.

Something to think about on a Monday morning.