Philadelphia Eagles have been shopping around Michael Bennett
Although it’s just rumors and speculation, it sounds like the Philadelphia Eagles are looking to trade defensive end, Michael Bennett.
Around this time last season, the Philadelphia Eagles made perhaps their most significant trade of the year. They sent a fifth-round pick and wide receiver Marcus Johnson to the Seattle Seahawks for the defensive end, Michael Bennett. At the time, the trade seemed like a steal. After seeing how the season played out for Bennett in 2018, the deal was undoubtedly a winner for the Birds.
Michael Bennett was expected to make an impact on the Eagles based off of his history alone. He’s a three-time Pro Bowler, who has a knack for sacking the quarterback. As dominant as the Eagles defensive line is, they never really had a sack-master on their team. That’s where Bennett was expected to help in 2018, and he sure did.
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Although Bennett got off to a slow start with the Eagles, he really turned up the intensity throughout the second half of the year. At first, Bennett was pretty much backing up Derek Barnett on the opposite side of where he’s used to playing.
After Barnett got injured though, Bennett got more playing time, which helped him lead the Eagles defense in sacks. He finished up the season with nine sacks, two forced fumbles, and 34 total tackles. Thankfully, the Eagles have Bennett on the team for at least another year. Or will they?
Is Michael Bennett on the trade block?
According to Geoff Mosher, the Philadelphia Eagles have been actively shopping Bennett around in Indianapolis this past week. As the NFL Combine is mainly for college players to work out and meet with all teams that are interested in potentially drafting them, there’s a lot more that goes on out there. The Combine is also used as a networking event for front offices to talk shop. We’ve heard that the Eagles were opening to listening on offers for Nelson Agholor. Now, we’re hearing that Michael Bennett was another player who’s for sale as well.
"“According to multiple NFL sources, the Eagles spent time last week in Indianapolis discussing potential trades involving defensive lineman Michael Bennett and gauging the 10-year veteran’s market value.”"
With the re-signing of Brandon Graham, it was pretty much public knowledge that another move or two was necessary in order to help out the cap situation. As Bennett is on the books for a $7.2 million cap hit, he was going to be a cap casualty or trade candidate. However, guys like Chris Long, Timmy Jernigan, and Jason Peters should’ve been as well.
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So far, it sounds like Bennett is viewed as the odd man out when it comes to the defensive line. We could see a re-structure coming from Jernigan, but it seems like the Eagles want to see what kind of value they can get from Bennett first. Seeing as though the price for him was pretty much a fifth-rounder last season, it doesn’t feel like his price tag is going to really be worth giving him away this year. The Eagles are strong up front on defense. Why ruin that for a late-round draft pick? We’ll see how this plays out as Free Agency approaches.