ESPN Predicts surprise cut candidate for the Philadelphia Eagles

ESPN put together a list of 32 unexpected trade or release candidates for each team. Who could the Philadelphia Eagles get rid of this summer?

The cap space situation earlier in the offseason made it feel like the Philadelphia Eagles weren’t going to do too much. Then again, we completely forgot who was in the General Manager’s chair. Howie Roseman, also known as a cap wizard made magic once again. He re-structured guys’ contracts and also made some tough cuts and trades to free up some much-needed space.

The Eagles are in good shape financially right now, but it could be better. We all know that at any moment Roseman can strike a deal. Whenever the phone is ringing, he’s picking up and listening to offers for everybody and anybody ready to counter with a different proposition.

However, trading isn’t Howie’s only forte. He’s quite familiar with making the difficult decisions of releasing guys as well. We’ve seen Roseman and company make some tough decisions over time. Last season, they let go of Vinny Curry and Brent Celek.

This season, he traded away Michael Bennett along with also cutting Timmy Jernigan, despite extending his contract just a season ago. Fortunately, Jernigan and Curry made their way back to Philly, but that’s not always the case. Tough decisions have to be made often, and we might not have seen the last of the difficult releases or trades.

ESPN believes a surprise cut will come soon enough

Recently, ESPN’s Bill Barnwell put together a list of 32 potential release or trade candidates for each NFL team split up by the division. As you would expect the obvious candidate for the Eagles to be Nelson Agholor, it turns out, that’s not the case. Instead, Barnwell went with veteran offensive tackle, Halapoulivaati Vaitai, also known as ‘Big V.’

Vaitai enters into his contract year in 2019, and it doesn’t seem like his future is very bright in Philadelphia. At times, Vaitai had some positive moments. And there were other times where he was struggling to look like a serviceable tackle in the NFL.

Many were under the belief that Vaitai could be the long-term replacement for Jason Peters, who is on his way out soon – but it turns out that may not be the case for the big man. During the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft, the Eagles took Washington State tackle, Andre Dillard.

Being that Lane Johnson is going to be around for a while, it’s likely that Dillard is viewed as the future starting left tackle, not Vaitai. So Barnwell suggests that a Vaitai trade could happen at some point during the offseason. His market won’t be high, but some value is better than none.