Philadelphia Eagles Steal Browns’ Laughing Stock Status

What were the Philadelphia Eagles thinking? We debate the merits of the trade, but one thing is certain. The Eagles officially stole laughingstock status from the Cleveland Browns.

Dan Salem and Todd Salem debate in today’s NFL Sports Debate. Two brothers from New York yell, scream, and debate sports.

TODD:

We interrupt our alphabetical series of NFL team previews to delve into the trade that just went down between the Cleveland Browns and the Philadelphia Eagles.

Cleveland agreed to send the second overall pick in the 2016 draft (plus a fourth-rounder next year) to Philadelphia for the eighth overall pick in 2016, a first next year, a second the year after, a third this year and a fourth this year.

Let’s get this out of the way: this is a very good trade for the Browns. Congratulations on not being a train wreck of an organization 100 percent of the time. If Cleveland wasn’t sold on the top quarterbacks in this draft class, it made no sense to keep the pick to begin with. The fact that it could grab this quality return makes the trade a good one. Now all the Browns have to do is actually draft useful players with those selections…

As for Philadelphia, this move is simply idiotic, and it isn’t even because of what the Eagles gave up.

If the trade works out, i.e. Philadelphia drafts its future franchise quarterback, the haul given back in return is irrelevant. It would be a good trade for Philly. But not only is there a small chance the Eagles draft such a franchise-savior, they don’t even know who they will be able to draft!

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This isn’t fantasy football; there aren’t tiers of interchangeable players who will offer the same stats. This is real life, and it seems almost impossible to imagine a team could value both Jared Goff and Carson Wentz exactly the same where it would be perfectly happy to take either one. That is absurd. These are different humans, with different personalities and different levels of intelligence. Not to mention, they have completely different playing styles! Yet Philadelphia made this deal to move up to number two to just take whichever guy is left over after Los Angeles selects at number one…What??

So not only are the Eagles giving up all those picks to make this deal; not only do they not know who is going to be available to take at number two; but they don’t even care! They’ll take either guy because they don’t have a preference. It’s not like the future of the franchise is on the line here.

And oh yeah, not to be forgotten, Philadelphia just signed Sam Bradford and Chase Daniel this offseason for a combined $56 million, $34 million guaranteed. That’s $34 million of guaranteed money for two players who the franchise does not believe in, one of whom is going to be an inactive third-string quarterback each week if the draft works out how the team actually wants.

This is a really unbelievable turn of events. Good thing the organization moved on from Chip Kelly. He really didn’t know what he was doing.

DAN:

The Eagles have officially stolen laughingstock status from Cleveland, at least for the next seven days. I love this trade for the Browns and think Philadelphia was crazy to hand over so many picks simply to move ahead six spots in the draft. The Eagles already had the 8th overall pick, after trading quite a lot to Miami in order to move up from 13th overall. Who trades up twice? What player is Philadelphia certain they will get?

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I agree that its very strange that the Eagles would trade up to 2nd overall, only to be unaware of which player they can select with that spot. You are assuming they want a quarterback, simply because logic would dictate that is the player you trade up for. Yet nothing about trading up for the SECOND time is logical. Very little of what Philadelphia has done this offseason makes much sense, if we assume that their moves are bad ones.

Time to play devil’s advocate. Perhaps Philadelphia loves Sam Bradford. They certainly paid him like they do. Perhaps they expect him to lead the team for three to five more years. They certainly paid him like they do. Perhaps the Eagles are so head-over-heels in love with a player in this draft that they would make as many trades necessary to get him. They have certainly acted as such, trading up twice to reach the second spot in the draft. The Eagles know that Los Angeles is picking a quarterback. Perhaps they do not intend on taking one. Now there are no more unknowns. Now the only question is, who do the Eagles plan on drafting?

NFL insiders have a strong feeling about who the Rams will pick, so its not unlikely that Philadelphia also is privy to this information. But quarterbacks aside, lets assume all of the Eagles’ moves make sense. Are they planning to grab Ezekiel Elliott second overall? Do they see a franchise changing player on the defensive side of the ball?

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Assuming the Eagles’ front office is reasonably good at its job, they must know one of two things. Either they know with near certainty who the Rams will select, and they want the other quarterback, or they are targeting another player no one has considered. Philadelphia must also know that one of the teams picking third to seventh was planing on taking that guy. If neither of those things are true, then the Eagles are as big of a mess as we all think right now. They have a lot of egg on their faces. Its not easy to make the Cleveland Browns look smart, but Philadelphia can now carry around that honor, at least until they’re on the clock.