Eagles

As Long as Howie Roseman is Around, the Eagles Will Be in Positions to Reload, not Rebuild

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Oct 8th, 2026 · 10:06 AM EDT

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When the Eagles traded Cam Jurgens to the Ravens on Wednesday, the draft and cap guys started thinking. Fans and media joined in.

What was the key takeaway? What was the #1 thing that trumped everything else?

I think it’s this:

Howie Roseman spent a 2022 1st and 2nd on AJ Brown and Cam Jurgens.

They were both key pieces to the Super Bowl victory in 2024.

Then he traded them for a 1st and 2nd in the 2028 NFL Draft.

— tom stakes (@tomstakes) October 7, 2026

Howie acquired both of these guys in 2022, won a Super Bowl with them, and was then able to flip them four years later for close to the same value. He got a 5th and a 1st for A.J. Brown and a 5th and a 2nd for Cam Jurgens.

The full series of events looks like this when you lay it out chronologically:

1. Eagles send Tennessee a 1st rounder and a 3rd rounder for 25-year-old A.J. Brown. Titans draft Treylon Burks.
2. Eagles use their remaining high picks to select Jordan Davis, Cam Jurgens, and Nakobe Dean.
3. Eagles go to Super Bowl 57 and lose by a field goal.
4. 2023 season is a crappy one.
5. Birds rebound in 2024 and win Super Bowl 59 with the best squad in franchise history, putting together their best performance in franchise history down in New Orleans.
6. 2025 season is a crappy one.
7. A.J. Brown is disgruntled.
8. Howie flips 29-year-old A.J. to New England for a 5th rounder in 2027 and a 1st rounder in 2028.
9. Jurgens has a rough start to 2026 season and is moved to left guard after Landon Dickerson goes on IR.
10. Howie flips 27-year-old Jurgens to the Ravens for a 5th rounder in 2027 and a 2nd rounder in 2028.

That’s incredible return for one guy who didn’t want to be here anymore and another guy who was playing poorly and also banged up. You got similar value for both of those guys four years after you acquired them. And sure, there was a 3rd rounder that went to Tennessee in the original A.J. Brown trade, which came back as a 5th rounder, but the difference between two rounds of draft stock was four years of elite receiver play and two Super Bowl appearances.

The Eagles do pretty well with 5th round draft picks, by the way. You can package and move up, which Howie will likely do, but they’ve taken guys like Drew Kendall, Jeremiah Trotter Jr., Kenny Gainwell, Wendell Smallwood, and Big V going back 10 years. Smael Mondon is a special teamer now. Nathan Gerry was a special teamer then, on the 1st Super Bowl team.

Coincidentally, or maybe not, the Eagles are now stocked for a few years down the road, when Jalen Hurts’ contract starts to wind down. There’s an off ramp here, a pivot point should things go south and the Birds decide they need to move off QB1 and change directions, just like Carson Wentz in 2020. And if that does happen, they’ll be well equipped, because Howie jumped on two moves that all GMs should jump on and brought back great value now.

Of course, it begs the question – doesn’t this make the Eagles worse now?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

They replaced A.J. Brown with Makai Lemon. Lemon hasn’t done much yet, but was also injured in the preseason and has been used terribly with those stupid screen passes. Kendall and Willie Lampkin might turn out to be perfectly acceptable replacements for Jurgens, and maybe Dickerson, depending on his health. I don’t think they’re punting on this season at all. I think it’s just Howie Roseman being his assertive self and seeing an opportunity.

I take what he says here at face value (via Dave Zangaro) –

“We weren’t looking to move Cam. Obviously, the Ravens had been looking for a center. They lost three centers. I speak to (Ravens GM) Eric (DeCosta) a lot. Originally, kind of told him it wasn’t anything we were looking to do. Over the last 24 hours it got to the point where we felt like it could be a win-win for them obviously getting a player who was a two-time Pro Bowl center for us. “And for us, being able to get the picks we were able to get and use that money also to sign players. Had a chance to watch Drew (Kendall) here play center. He’s doing a nice job, have a young player there. I think for us, when you talk about the 2 and the 5 and going from the 7 to the 5th, we’ve had success in the 5th round. Plus, the money, plus Drew playing, we felt like we were getting four players for one. We just felt like for us with all of these guys that we’ve got coming up, a lot on the defensive side of the ball we want to re-sign and extend, felt like that was a good situation for us.”

As long as Howie is here, the Eagles will be in positions of reloading and not rebuilding. He’s always looking ahead, finding value, and building off ramps.