The Eagles have answered their running back position in a big way, pulling off a trade with the Chicago Bears for running back Jordan Howard, the team announced on Thursday night.
According to ESPN, the Eagles will send the Bears a 6th-round pick in 2020 that can become a 5th-round pick.
Howard comes to the Eagles with a base salary of $2 million, which will hardly put a dent into the Eagles' salary cap space. It would not be surprising if the team re-signed the running back to a new deal now that they have acquired him.
Howard, just 24-years old, makes sense for the Eagles in multiple ways, and has a major fan in the Eagles' front office in Joe Douglas. Douglas played a large role in the Chicago Bears drafting Jordan in 2016. Since then, Howard has 850 total touches over three seasons for a total of 3,938 yards and 25 total touchdowns. At one point Howard looked like he was going to be one of the next great young running backs in the NFL. Last season, however, his total touches were the lowest of his career. Still, Howard put up 935 yards and nine touchdowns on 250 carries -- numbers very comparable to what David Johnson put up in Arizona last season.
It will be interesting to see how the Eagles use Howard in the passing game, as he did not make much of an impact in that area while in Chicago. Howard totaled just 72 catches for 568 yards in three seasons in Chicago, an average of just 7.9 yards per reception.
Howard fills a major need at running back, one that fans were growing worried the team wouldn't address. Top personnel executive Howie Roseman tried to calm those fears this past week at the NFL Annual Meetings.
"The three running backs who played in the Super Bowl were all guys we acquired after the 2017 NFL Draft. The talent acquisition period continues to go," Roseman said. "We want to have the best possible team. We are going to look into everything. That is our job, and at the same time we have to grow and develop our young players."
By making this trade, it is safe to say that fans will no longer be worried -- and that this offense is now considerably better off than it was in 2018.
In addition to Jordan, the Eagles have also added arguably the best deep receiver in the NFL in DeSean Jackson while also retaining slot receiver Nelson Agholor. Add in the weapons the team already had -- receiver Alshon Jeffery, tight end Zach Ertz and tight end Dallas Goedert -- and quarterback Carson Wentz is going to have a serious set of weapons to work with.
You can follow Eliot Shorr-Parks on Twitter at @EliotShorrParks or email him at esp@94wip.com!
