3 Players The Philadelphia Eagles May Move At Trade Deadline
By Ryan Quigley
Nov 27, 2014; Arlington, TX, USA; Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Vinny Curry (75) celebrates a sack in the game against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports
We’re a mere two days away from the NFL trade deadline and all 32 teams are not only looking at potential trade targets, but looking for trade chips as well.
Speak of the devil, Chip Kelly will be a busy man over the next couple days.
Kelly was given full reign of the Philadelphia Eagles‘ personnel over the summer and he’s taken full advantage of it. Gone are the likes of Jeremy Maclin, LeSean McCoy and Nick Foles. Insert DeMarco Murray and Sam Bradford and this is a completely different team from last year’s squad. This is Chip’s team now and there is no reason to believe that he won’t be actively pursuing at least several players. But if that’s the case, he’ll need to send some guys away as well. Here are five Eagles who could be moved before Tuesday’s trade deadline.
It sounds crazy to trade away a guy known as “Mufasa” in the locker room, but that just might happen. The Eagles are loaded at inside linebacker and the youth movement is starting to take effect. The emergence of rookie Jordan Hicks (Simba) makes Ryans expendable. In seven games this season, Hicks has recorded 43 tackles (leads team along with Malcolm Jenkins), a sack, which knocked Dallas Cowboys‘ quarterback Tony Romo out against the Eagles in Week 2, an interception, a forced fumble and three fumble recoveries.
Not too bad.
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Hicks has been far more valuable than anyone predicted and the tandem of Hicks and Mychal Kendricks will be a joy to watch.
Oh, and let’s not forget Kiko Alonso is readying a return after straining his ACL in Week 2.
Ryans seems to be the odd man out and it would make sense to move him while he’s still valuable. He’s towards the end of his career and it would make sense to move him to a team where he can potentially win a Super Bowl before he calls it quits.
Before the season began, I believed this guy was the future of the Eagles’ receiving corps. He’s a big, strong pass-catcher who can dominate at the line of scrimmage with his long arms. As a rookie, Matthews recorded 872 yards and eight touchdowns and looked to become the next great receiver in Philadelphia, but he’s been nothing short of abysmal in his sophomore season.
In seven games this season, Matthews has 398 yards, one touchdown and six drops.
Six.
This is the same guy who dominated training camp all summer and was commonly regarded as a potential 1,000-yard receiver for 2015. But almost halfway through the season, Matthews has looked nothing close to being the guy everyone was expecting and it wouldn’t be out of the question to at least throw his name around to see what kind of offers can be negotiated. Matthews is still young and is oozing with potential, but Chip isn’t exactly a patient man. He wants to win now and judging by his track record as the overseer of player personnel in Philadelphia, would it really be a surprise to see him trade away a guy like Matthews?
It probably won’t happen, but it’s something to at least ponder.
Born in Neptune, New Jersey, Curry has been a lifelong die-hard Eagles fan since day one. In 2012, a television network wanted to come to Curry’s house to capture his reaction to being drafted, but Curry didn’t want to take down all of the Eagles paraphernalia in his house, so it never ended up happening.
That’s fandom, folks.
As it would turn out, Curry ended up getting drafted by the Eagles in the second round of that draft and has turned out to be a pretty disruptive player on the Philly defensive line, constantly getting in the QB’s face and causing running backs to change the course of their running lanes. Curry’s motor is nonstop and has one of the quickest get offs in the league. It’s actually really noticeable just how quicks he is off the snap of the football.
Despite only being a rotational player, Curry was able to record nine sacks last season. He’s off to a rather slow start this season with only one sack in seven games, which isn’t doing him any favors if he wants to stay in Philadelphia.
Curry was drafted in the final year of Andy Reid‘s tenure in Philadelphia, meaning that he’s not one of “Chip’s guys.” He’s a natural fit in a 4-3 system and the Eagles run primarily out of the 3-4. While Curry has been effective as a 3-4 end, it seems that Chip is ready to move on from him. Do not be surprised if Curry is wearing a different uniform after the trade deadline.
This is all just speculation. It could very well turn out that none of these players could get traded and the Eagles’ roster will remain exactly the same as it has been all season. But it’s always fun to play the “what if” game and take a glance into the world of unknowns.