Forget being sellers.
The Eagles should buy.
Yes, that might sound crazy with the team at 3-5, but look at it logically. The Eagles have no real assets to sell off. Players like Fletcher Cox and Darius Slay make too much money to trade, and are still important parts of the team. Veterans like Steven Nelson won’t return much, and are worth more to the team this season than they are in a low-round, future draft pick.
Instead, the smart move is for the Eagles to add their roster, not sell off pieces of it.
The Eagles currently sit just one game out of the final NFC Wild Card spot with nine games to play and the fourth-easiest schedule in the league the rest of the way. The four teams currently ahead of them — the Panthers, Vikings, 49ers and Falcons — all have a remaining schedules that fall inside the top 11. They own head-to-head tiebreakers over two of those teams.
The path to the playoffs is very-much there, and for a team that really, really needs to end the season with some clarity at quarterback and head coach, Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts taking this team to the playoffs would be a positive, not a negative.
To make that happen, Howie Roseman should be looking to add to the roster before Tuesday’s NFL Trade Deadline. The team has an obvious need at linebacker, but they also have an underrated need at receiver. The trio of young receivers the Eagles have, DeVonta Smith, Quez Watkins and Jalen Reagor, have all shown flashes of talent, but none have been consistent. Hurts shoulders the blame for the issues in the passing game, which were once again apparent in the win over Detroit, but he hasn’t gotten a ton of help from his receivers.
Adding a proven, veteran receiver would be a big boost to the Eagles’ passing game, something they desperately need if they are going to take advantage of the easy schedule ahead of them.
The player Roseman should target to fill that need? Miami Dolphins receiver DeVante Parker.
Parker, 28-years old, is the perfect combination of proven ability while also being young enough to be a contributor beyond this season. Parker has shown flashes of being a dominant receiver, racking up 2,237 yards in his last 29 games, an average of 77 yards per game and an average of 14.7 yards-per-catch. At 6-foot-3 he has the height and size the Eagles young trio of receivers lack, and would give Hurts a big body receiver with a big wingspan to target.
Parker also has a team-friendly contract. The receiver is under contract through the 2023 season, with base salaries of $5.6 million in 2022 and $5.7 million in 2023. He would cost the Eagles around $4 million the rest of this season, but with $21 million in space currently, that isn’t an issue.
As for compensation, Parker has reportedly been available for a while, so chances are the Eagles won’t have to move much to get him. It won’t take a pick in the top-three rounds, and if the Dolphins are really trying to sell-off talent, it might only take a 5th-round pick.
With 11 picks in the 2022 NFL Draft, including three that are currently in the top 10, the Eagles already have more than enough draft capital to build with moving forward. They don’t need to add more picks — they need to help Sirianni, Hurts and Jonathan Gannon develop. That won’t happen by selling off talent now, it will happen by giving them more pieces to work with.
Parker is the player they should target, but if Roseman sees a chance to add a player to the team before Tuesday to help them on their push towards the playoffs, he should absolutely do it.
You can reach Eliot Shorr-Parks on Twitter at @EliotShorrParks or email him at esp@94wip.com!