Howie Roseman explains Eagles’ wild flurry of Day 3 trades – MASHAHER

Howie Roseman explains Eagles’ wild flurry of Day 3 trades originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Could you keep up with all the Eagles’ trades on Saturday?

If you couldn’t, there’s no shame in that. The Eagles made a wild flurry of moves during the third and final day of the 2024 draft and they seemingly came one right after another.

But general manager Howie Roseman was on top of it.

“We got all these people in this room and kind of know what we’re trying to do here,” Roseman said. “We know what sounds good and when a trade sounds good. We know what we’re trying to execute. I don’t know. I never really thought about it that way.

“As we’re doing this and as we’re getting close to being on the clock, we kind of have an idea of our plan and how many guys are there. Sometimes when we hear a trade, it kind of sounds good, and we do it.”

It’s as easy as that?

“It should be a little more complicated,” Roseman joked. “I don’t know.”

The Eagles didn’t have to make a trade on Day 1. Instead, they let top cornerback Quinyon Mitchell fall to them at pick No. 22. But they made up for that stagnant start to the draft.

In Day 2, the Eagles made three trades and then they made five trades in Day 5. That’s eight total, which is a huge amount.

The Eagles ended up drafting nine players in 2024 but just two of them came at a slot the Eagles had entering the weekend. It’s worth noting that three of their five trades on Saturday netted picks in 2025. They added an addition third, fourth and fifth in next year’s draft.

Here’s what Roseman said about their bigger plan entering Day 3:

“I think when you start a day like today and you have as many picks as we do, you go into it and say, ‘Hey, what would be a great goal?’ It would be to get as many of the guys that we’ve targeted on day three as we possibly can and at the same time see if we can try to accumulate picks for the future.

“We were a little light for next year’s draft going into day three today, and so I think that was a little bit of a focus in the trade talks. Sometimes you’re in trade talks and kind of going, ‘Hey, I’ll take a pick in this year’s draft.’ So in those talks more focused today in particular about instead of a this year pick, we’ll take a next year pick just because we wanted to get back some of the picks that we had gotten rid of next year.

“We felt like we had an opportunity with the amount of picks we had today to get a lot of players that we liked, and we were also excited about the draft process. You guys all talked about it. It will be a little bit different draft class next year because of the amount of guys that are coming out next year. That was kind of in the back of our mind.”

That takes some foresight. The Eagles entered Saturday with just six picks in the 2025 draft and they wanted to add to that with the expected strength and depth of next year’s class.

The Eagles seem to value future picks more than most teams and there are probably several reasons for that. One likely one is that Roseman has more job security than most general managers who might be operating with more short-term goals in mind.

And sometimes when the draft is more distant, those picks don’t have names associated with them. If you’re trading a fourth-round pick this year, you already know the players who you could have had. A fourth-round pick next year is a little out of sight, out of mind.

But the trio of Roseman, Jeffrey Lurie and Nick Sirianni went into this draft trying to land players they coveted but also add value for the future.

“So you have the three of us like-minded about trying to balance everything we can to win a championship now,” Roseman said, “and also trying to keep this rolling so that we can do that in the future.”

Here’s a recap of all eight trades from the 2024 draft:

1. The Eagles traded picks 2-50, 2-53 and 161 for 40, 78 and 5-152. They took DB Cooper DeJean at No. 40.

2. They traded pick 78 to the Houston Texans for 3-86 and 4-123. The Texans took USC safety Calen Bullock.

3. They traded pick 86 to the 49ers for 3-94 and 4-132. The 49ers took Kansas guard Dominick Puni.

4. They traded pick 4-120 to the Dolphins for a 2025 third-round pick. The Dolphins took Tennessee RB Jaylen Wright.

5. They traded 4-123 to the Texans for 4-127 and picked up a 2025 fifth-round pick. The Texans took Ohio State TE Cade Stover.

6. They traded 4-132 and 6-210 to the Lions for 5-165, 6-201 and a 2025 fourth-round pick. The Lions took Utah RB Sione Vaki at 132.

7. They traded picks 5-164 and 6-201 to move up to 5-155 to draft linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. from Clemson.

8. They traded 5-171 to the Jets for 6-185 and 6-190. The Jets took Florida State quarterback Jordan Travis at 171.

Subscribe to Eagle Eye anywhere you get your podcasts: 
Apple Podcasts | YouTube Music | Spotify | Stitcher | Art19 | RSS | Watch on YouTube