Philadelphia Eagles trade proposals that could pay dividends at deadline

Philadelphia Eagles trade proposal number 1: Steven Nelson to the 49ers

For the Philadelphia Eagles, the cornerback position has been an annual discussion during every offseason seemingly since Lito Sheppard and Sheldon Brown left town and the Nnamdi Asomugha addition didn’t work out. They’ve literally tried everything.

We won’t get into the failures of Howie Roseman and Chip Kelly here, but we will say this. Elite wide receivers seem to pop up with more frequency than elite players at the cornerback position. Look no further than what’s going on in San Francisco with the 49ers.

After giving up on Richard Sherman, they seemed satisfied with their decision to roll with Jason Verrett, but they lost him for the season in the opener. They’re also missing Emmanuel Moseley.

What did they do? They signed Josh Norman off the street, and, in their desperation, added him into the starting lineup immediately. The last time Birds fans saw Norman, Greg Ward was beating him for his first NFL touchdown reception, a game-winner.

The Eagles have a strange history with the Carolina Panthers. A lot of former Birds end up there, so after their star rookie Jaycee Horn went down, one might imagine Carolina reached out to Philly to inquire about a few prospects, but instead, they added Stephon Gilmore.

For that reason, we ship Steven Nelson off to San Fran. The one-year deal hints at the fact that the Eagles aren’t banking on him for their long-term future. They also have young prospects in Zech McPhearson and Tay Gowan.

Moving Nelson could give them the opportunity to show what they can do, and the addition of Jimmy Garoppolo gives them some better insurance than Joe Flacco and Gardner Minshew if Jalen Hurts doesn’t work out. In this scenario, Philly throws in a late-round draft choice here to sweeten the deal.