Why Eagles felt comfortable trading back from 6 to 12

The Eagles made some big news on Friday when they traded down from pick No. 6 to No. 12, but this was a trade that was reportedly brewing for weeks.

The Dolphins actually called the Eagles over two weeks ago to gauge their interest in a trade, according to SI.com’s Albert Breer.

According to the report, the Dolphins were fine with trading out of the No. 3 spot but didn’t want to be all the way back at 12, where the 49ers were coming from. So they needed to include a third team and the Eagles were interesting and willing to keep it quiet for two weeks until they needed to hammer out the details.

But why did the Eagles feel comfortable moving down six spots?

Aside from the compensation — they’re going to get the Dolphins’ first-round pick in 2022 — there was this blurb from Breer:

“And with a pretty good decent chance the Bengals will take LSU’s Ja’Marr Chase at five (we mentioned in our mock this week that that Joe Burrow has given Cincinnati’s brass a glowing recommendation), Philly felt comfortable with the difference in talent between six and 12—and also operated with the knowledge that it’d be hard to get a future first (this being Miami’s slotted No. 1 in 2022) in exchange for moving down closer to the draft, particularly if it looked like the top four picks would be QBs.”

Yeah, so that’s interesting. For weeks, we talked about the possible decision the Eagles would have to make between Chase and Kyle Pitts but perhaps they never thought it was going to be a decision. Maybe if the Eagles felt more confident about the chance of landing Chase at 6, they wouldn’t have made the move down. But if they looked at the board and thought the top wideout would be gone and they could then get a comparable player at 12, it makes more sense why they made the move.

Now the Eagles are in line to potentially have three first-round picks next year and still have 11 picks this year, including five in the first four rounds:

1st round: No. 12 (trade with MIA)

2nd round: No. 37 (own pick)

3rd round: No. 70 (own pick)

3rd round: No. 84 (trade with Colts)

4th round: No. 123 (trade with MIA)

5th round: No. 150 (own pick)

6th round: No. 189 (own pick)

6th round: No. 224 (compensatory pick)

6th round: No. 225 (compensatory pick)

7th round: No. 234 (own pick)

7th round: No. 240 (from 49ers as part of Marquise Goodwin trade)

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