Eagles

Five Things to Like About the Eagles and Saints Trade

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Apr 5th, 2022 · 9:24 AM EDT

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Monday, Howie Roseman pulled the ski mask over his face and executed another heist, working a pre-draft deal with New Orleans that looks like this:

• Eagles get: #18 overall (1st rounder), #101 overall (3rd rounder), #237 overall (7th rounder), a 2023 first round pick, and a 2024 second round pick
• Saints get: #16 (1st rounder), #19 (first rounder), #194 (6th rounder)

Essentially, he picked up extra future assets in exchange for swapping out a first round pick this season, and moving from three first rounders down to two.

The response was overwhelmingly positive from experts and fans alike, and here are five things to like about the trade:

 

1) The Saints are easy to cheer against and might stink in 2022

Yeah, jerk Sean Payton is gone, and he was a big reason for that team being dislikable, but it’s still the Saints. They are perennial chokers with a crybaby fan base that tried to have the courts overturn the non-pass interference call from a few years back.

The Saints have a new coach, the QB situation isn’t amazing (either Jameis or a rookie under center), and Drew Brees ain’t walking through that door in 2022. They’re coming off a 9-8 season in transitioning out of the Brees/Payton era. Tom Brady is back in Tampa, so even though the Panthers and Falcons aren’t amazing, there’s an alpha in the NFC South that should keep New Orleans down.

Plus, they have a difficult slate that includes the Rams, Bengals, Niners, Ravens, Browns, Eagles, and Steelers. They might not stink outright, but they won’t be good either. Worst case scenario, the Eagles find themselves with another mid-round pick, but the 5-15 range seems likely based on projections/

2) The flexibility

We all know this isn’t a great quarterback draft class. By kicking the can down the road, you allow yourself the flex to move on a QB next season, be it in the draft or via trade, and you leave yourself assets this year to add two first round defensive players or a first round defensive player and receiver.

Say, for instance, you go Travon Walker and Treylon Burks – you’ve now added two starters, given Jalen Hurts another legit weapon to work with, and if Jalen isn’t the guy, you still added talent this year while giving yourself “optionality” in 2023, which is a word Daryl Morey uses even though it isn’t technically a word.

People say this puts pressure on Hurts, or puts him on a timer, but that was already the case anyway. Trade or not, Hurts was essentially getting another developmental year in 2022, to prove that he’s the guy moving forward. Now if he’s not, you’ve give yourself some insurance.

3) they still pick in front of the Saints, twice

When the Eagles shuffled first rounders this year, the board came out looking like this:

15. Eagles, 16. Saints, 17. Chargers, 18. Eagles, 19. Saints

Zangaro:

One of the funniest parts of that trade is that the Eagles got No. 18 instead of just sticking at 19 and doing the deal without it.

— Dave Zangaro (@DZangaroNBCS) April 4, 2022

And they can still move up and back in this draft, too. You’re not gonna see a blockbuster move for a QB, but we could very well imagine Howie going up from 15 to 12, or dropping from 18 into the high 20s. It’s Roseman and he loves to move around the board.

4) cap and contract flex

Rap Sheet:

Rationale for the #Saints: This trade gives them three picks in the Top 50 and hopefully that 1 next year is a back-end.
Rationale for #Eagles: They now don’t have to pay 3 1st fully guaranteed contracts, get an extra 1 next year either for a QB or to build around a QB.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 4, 2022

This topic sometimes falls by the wayside. If you do use multiple first round draft picks in a single season, you’re gonna eventually find yourself in the position of having to pay all of these guys at the same time, assuming they work out. It sounds like we’re putting the cart before the horse here, and we are, but imagine using three selections, every guy works out, and then you have some SUPER HARD decisions to make, because you can’t keep everybody. You can’t pay everybody and you end up losing a player you really like. Staggering the contract timeline is an underrated flexibility move.

5) guaranteed return

One of the good things about doing a pre-draft trade is you ensure that your picks are going to be moved for worthwhile assets.

What I mean is this:

Some people will complain that the Birds did this now, instead of waiting for draft night in an attempt to drive value up and “get more back” in the return. There’s nothing wrong with that mindset, but the issue there is twofold. One, teams aren’t typically going crazy to move into the middle of the first round. Two, this is a weak QB class, and QBs are the target selections that predicate blockbuster draft trades.

It might have benefited the Eagles to wait, and see if they could get an even better return, but by doing it now they’ve guaranteed themselves future assets and positioned themselves for a corresponding move at the end of the month, should they want to explore that.

One of the most lopsided trades we have seen in a long time. The 1,2 & 3 saints gave up for 16 was enough that they could’ve used it to trade for almost any nfl star player not a QB and had picks left over. Instead they got a mid first round pick. Crazy.

— Joe Banner (@JoeBanner13) April 4, 2022