3 aggressive, near-impossible moves for the Eagles to consider

Convince the Bengals to trade Jessie Bates. It’s doubtful, but fingers are crossed.

As attractive as an idea as this is, even after the Jaquiski Tartt acquisition (he’s having a quiet camp by the way), there’s seemingly no way to get a deal done here. Any trade that ends with Jessie Bates landing in an Eagles jersey could cost the Birds both players and draft capital, and in all honesty, Philly doesn’t present itself as an organization that will invest tremendous resources into upgrading the safety position.

Now, if Jessie Bates was a defensive tackle or a quarterback, that might be a different story.

On one hand, getting the Cincinnati Bengals interested in someone like Jalen Reagor or Andre Dillard could be easy. Philly can rid themselves of one or both guys in one swoop. Cincinnati might consider adding Reagor to an already stacked wide receiver corps. Tee Higgins has also had his issues with some discomfort in the shoulder, but in terms of their offensive line, that always seems to be a concern.

The Bengals boast one of the best young signal-callers in the game, Joe Burrow. He’s also recovering from an appendectomy, and the Bengals have had issues with keeping him upright.

They added guard Alex Cappa, center Ted Karras, and La’el Collins at various points of the offseason to address said issues, but Cappa and Collins have already been mentioned in discussions about injury concerns.

On the other hand, the more realistic scenario seems to be one in which the Bengals force Jessie Bates to play under the franchise tag. They seem to be willing to stand their ground, so as intriguing as it would be to add someone of Bates’ caliber, for now, we’ll rate this one as a near-impossible roster addition.

Not only will Bates be expensive (again, we’re thinking players and multiple early picks would be the asking price), but you also have to sign him to a huge deal. Fingers are crossed for a large deal, but it’s hard to imagine one occurring.