Eagles Are Open To Trading Down

Yesterday, Eagles General Manager Howie Roseman talked about trades and the probability of trades.  During his time as the Eagles GM he has shown us that he’s open to trades at any and all times during the draft.  He said as much yesterday during his hour with the local media.  Roseman’s comment regarding trades, “We’re open to anything” says a lot.

Part of the reason for his attitude is the change that took place a couple of years ago in the rookie salary structure.  The lowering of the rookie salaries has enhanced the probability of trades in the early part of the draft.  In the past teams had to shell out record contracts to rookies, but that is no longer the case and it makes quality players in the first round a better value.

“It’s easier to maneuver with this new rookie wage scale,” Roseman said. “Before, it was cost-prohibitive in terms of cash and cap with your team to trade into the top-five, no matter how much you liked the player going forward because you were going to be hamstrung in some situation or another. It gives you some flexibility. You’re not as reluctant to trade up – not based on your evaluation, but based on how it’s going to affect your team in the future.”

Trade talks start much earlier than most of the fans realize.  Teams are doing trade talk throughout the draft process.

“Even during the combine, you talk to people about their pick and what’s going on,” Roseman said. “The serious conversation will pick up next week, when you’ve had a chance to sit back, look at your draft board, go through scenarios and figure out what you’re looking at and what you’re going to get.”

Roseman shared information about last year’s trade with Seattle in the first round of the draft.  The trade had been finalized prior to the day of the draft.

“I think there are teams that are very comfortable giving you scenarios they’ll stick to in that situation,” Roseman said. “With us and Seattle last year with [Seahawks GM] John [Schneider], it was very easy to get to an agreement on the compensation if the player we were interested in was there and they felt comfortable moving back.

“I think what that does, it takes the negotiating out of being on the clock, because when you’re on the clock, there’s a lot of things going on. You’re getting a lot of phone calls and when you’re starting something new or from scratch and you’re going through that process, time runs out fairly quickly.”

You could see where a wise draft manager would like to make an agreement prior to the draft because it would give them a chance to look it over and think it through enough to make sure that they saw every side of the deal.

Still trading down cannot be treated nonchalantly because there are players at the top of most drafts that can’t be had later in the first round.  The Eagles know that the top ten players in this draft have a better chance of succeeding that the guys at the end of the first round, so you can’t trade down too low and wind up missing out on grabbing a probable starter or star.

“I think that there is, certainly on our draft board, a clear line of players we think can be elite talents in this league,” Roseman said.

As for the second round, the Birds have the 35th pick in the draft and Roseman is looking forward to playing the draft game on Friday with teams who might have their eyes on a player, who has surprisingly slid down.

“We don’t have 35 first-round grades, so you always hope that a guy you have in the first round slips to that spot,” he said. “I think there’s going to be a lot of action because I think there’s going to be a lot of good players. I think that Friday’s going to be fun.”

I hope the fun ends with the Eagles have acquired another good player or two.