Will the Eagles continue shedding high-priced veterans as the NFL trade deadline approaches?
The Zach Ertz move says yes, but Howie Roseman says no.
Roseman said Friday morning that the Eagles' decision to trade the 30-year-old Ertz to the Cardinals does not mean the Eagles plan to be sellers in the two weeks before the trade deadline.
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The Eagles are 2-4 under rookie head coach Nick Sirianni and have lost four of their last five games after opening the season with a win in Atlanta.
Just six weeks into the season, the Eagles are already two games and a head-to-head loss behind the Cowboys in the NFC East. Among NFC teams, only the Giants and Lions have fewer wins than the Eagles.
The NFL trade deadline is Nov. 2, and the Eagles have two more games before then: the 3-2 Raiders a week from Sunday in Las Vegas and then the winless Lions in Detroit on Oct. 31.
"I don't view us as being sellers," Roseman said. "I view us as still having an opportunity in the next 11 games to show what kind of team we are."
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But Roseman has a long history of making trade-deadline moves, whether the Eagles are a winning team or a losing team. In 2017, he acquired Jay Ajayi from the Dolphins for a 4th-round pick, in 2018, it was Golden Tate from the Lions for a 3rd-round pick and in 2019, Genard Avery from the Browns for a 4th-round pick.
And the Eagles certainly have some players that could be attractive to other teams, notably the underutilized Miles Sanders.
But Roseman said the Ertz move wasn't a case of a losing team going nowhere trying to shed a high-priced veteran, it was a matter of accommodating Ertz's wishes along with the Eagles wanting to get a look at Dallas Goedert as a full-time tight end as he approaches free agency.
The Eagles received a 2022 5th-round pick and young cornerback Tay Gowan from the Cards.
"This was more about the opportunity to really put the pieces of the puzzle together for this team at that position and kind of moving forward," Roseman said.
"It's not to give up on the season in any way, shape or form. I'm not thinking of anything going south but thinking about the opportunity we have in front of us starting with Vegas next week."
The Eagles are through the most challenging part of their schedule. The six teams they've already faced have a composite 20-16 record, and their four losses have been to teams that are a combined 13-8. Their 11 remaining opponents -- counting Washington and the Giants twice each -- are 24-31 and only four of those 11 have a winning record (Dallas is 4-1 and the Raiders, Broncos and Saints are 3-2).
On Friday, a day after the 28-22 home loss to the Bucs, Sirianni echoed Roseman and said he still believes the Eagles can be a winning team, even though that would mean going 7-4 at worst the rest of the season.
"I just know what we think in this building, that we're trying to win every single game, all our goals are still out there in front of us, and we're trying to win as many games as possible," he said.
"Our mentality is exactly the same. I can't think 10 games from now, all I can think of is how we fix this game and what we're going to do to win the Las Vegas game so we can be 1-0 this week."
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