Memo to Howie: Trade Saquon, Landon Dickerson, Zack Baun, and maybe Jalen Carter ASAP | NFL Week 8
They've lost six straight for the first time since Andy Reid's 2012 Season From Hell. Sell now. Sell high.
Howie Roseman has the easiest job in sports this week.
He gets to trade Saquon Barkley.
Barkley wouldn’t talk about his health but he looked fit at Washington on Sunday Night Football — or, more accurately, the Eagles Shopping Network.
The trade deadline is Nov. 10. Why wait? Sell high. Sell healthy. Sell Saquon, Landon Dickerson, Zack Baun, Dallas Goedert, Jake Elliott, even Jalen Carter, if anybody will take him.
Maybe Moro Ojomo, too.
Just sell, sell, sell.
» READ MORE: Nick Sirianni’s Eagles are burning. Jeffrey Lurie may prefer his Eagles rise from the ashes of Sirianni’s tenure.
The regular season is over for the Eagles, since they will have no postseason, so that makes it Howie Szn. Only three teams in the Super Bowl era have made the playoffs after a 2-6 start.
None of them had Tanner McKee starting at quarterback.
Nor did any of them have a No. 1 receiver who was sidelined by a hamstring issue for a third time since the start of training camp, as is DeVonta Smith. Nor did they have an offensive line with its best player retired after he’d played just three games that season, as did Lane Johnson.
It’s time to cut losses and stockpile assets.
The Eagles not only are 2-6, they have lost six games in a row, each one worse than the last. McKee, a third-year, sixth-round pick who has started in just three meaningful games, is years away from competence. The defense is stout, but the special teams are suspect — Elliott missed a 41-yard field goal, the kickoff coverage and punt coverage units gave up big returns, and overworked punter Braden Mann fired off a mini-shank.
The salary-cap ramifications might hurt for a year or so. That’s OK. Time is not of the essence. The hard truth is, even though they’re only a year and change removed from their Super Bowl LIX win, the Eagles clearly are much more than a year and change away from regaining relevance.
They need to immediately fire overmatched offensive coordinator Sean Mannion. They likely will have no choice but to fire head coach Nick Sirianni, if not after this season, then next.
As for the roster, the fresh start starts today.
In the NFL you rebuild with draft picks. You stash picks by shedding talent and salary.
» READ MORE: The big, bad Eagles are gone. They know it, and the rest of the NFL plans to rub their faces in it.
Eagles fans love these players. That’s understandable. Elliott was part of both the first Super Bowl win in Eagles history, LII, a revenge win over the Patriots who’d cheated them out of Super Bowl XXXIX, and the second, a revenge win over former Eagles coach and current Chiefs coach Andy Reid. Philly loves revenge, too.
Goedert holds the franchise record for playoff catches. Saquon had the best year of any Eagles running back in 2024, the same year Baun broke out as a linebacker, and Philly loves nothing more than stars at obsolete positions. Dickerson was part of the best O-line in Eagles history that season. Carter, in his second season, was still hungry for a big payday, and he played hungry.
There’s a lot of love connected with these guys.
If you love somebody, set them free.
Barkley, an elite running back who has been fighting hamstring and back issues, will be 30 next year, and, after spending his first six seasons with the Giants, he deserves another chance to win. Second-rounder.
Dickerson, an elite left guard, has knees, ankles, and a back that are as dependable as a secondhand Yugo, but Dickerson might have one more late-season push in him. Second-rounder (please).
Baun is a Pro Bowl linebacker who turns 30 in December, and, after three high-mileage seasons, he’s beginning to look like it. Three years in Philly will do that to anyone. Third-rounder.
Goedert gets hurt but he blocks, makes catches, and he’s money in January: His 56 playoff catches is the Eagles record. He’s not like if Travis Kelce and Gronk had a baby; he’s more like if they adopted.
Carter just signed a $152 million extension because, as a dynamic tackle, he’s the most important player on the defense. However, he also is the least consistent player on the defense, and, after telling Philly fans last week that he doesn’t care if they think he’s dogging it after he got paid, he’s the least popular player on the defense. First-rounder.
Marcus Hayes alerts
Carter’s better than Ojomo, but Ojomo is a cheaper option who earns his money every snap. Second-rounder, or maybe a third and fourth.
The Eagles need picks.
The Eagles need to rebuild.
Besides, sooner or later you’re going to have to draft a quarterback, and you might need lots of picks to trade up to do that.
MVP O-U-T, again
The murkiness of Lamar Jackson’s injury history won’t be enhanced by the latest one.
Jackson injured his right thumb Sunday when the follow-through of his first pass high-fived Bills edge rusher Greg Rousseau. Jackson immediately left the game. He will need surgery, will land on injured reserve, and likely will miss the rest of the season. The Ravens fell to 4-4 at Buffalo.
It was Jackson’s first game back after he missed three games with a sprained left ankle. That he missed the third game was a point of contention after a productive week of practice and a sideline report that the Ravens were surprised that, the day before the game, Jackson declared himself unavailable.
It was the second time in two years Jackson did not play after a productive week of practice. A similar sequence of events occurred after he missed two games with a hamstring injury last season.
In 2022, after a knee sprain forced an early exit in early December, the Ravens announced postgame that Jackson might miss one game but likely no more. Jackson not only missed the last five regular-season games, but, before the Ravens’ wild-card playoff game, he declared himself unavailable for the postseason.
» READ MORE: Eagles’ Tanner McKee fails to move offense again, says unit’s issues are fixable: ‘We need to execute’
That was the second consecutive year that an injury unexpectedly ended his season. In 2021, he missed the last four games with an ankle sprain from which the Ravens expected him to return.
Jackson won the NFL MVP award in 2019 and 2023 and was runner-up in 2024. He holds the records for career rushing yards and single-season rushing yards by a quarterback, and his four games with a perfect passer rating is tied for the NFL record with Peyton Manning and Ben Roethlisberger.
He will enter 2027 in the final season of a five-year, $260 million contract.
A Cowboys collapse
Jerry Jones endorsed head coach Brian Schottenheimer after the Cowboys’ 33-30 collapse against the visiting Cardinals dropped them to 3-5, and did so by invoking the memory of Wade Phillips. The Cowboys led, 24-10, early in the fourth quarter but lost, 33-30, in overtime. “A lot of people let Brian down today,” Jones said, and referenced his replacement of Phillips with Jason Garrett after a 1-7 start in 2010: “I’m not proud of it.”
Maybe that’s because Phillips won three playoff games in his three full seasons and Garrett won just five playoff games in his nine full seasons.
Imperfection
The Lions (5-2) removed the 6-0 Vikings from the ranks of the unbeaten with a late touchdown pass but lost linebacker Jack Campbell with a neck injury suffered in the fourth quarter. Campbell was strapped to a backboard, carried off the field, and taken to a hospital, where he remained overnight with no word on whether he could move his extremities.
Later, in Denver, the 6-0 Chiefs led, 24-21, when Harrison Butker missed a 54-yard field goal with 2 minutes, 36 seconds to play. The home-standing Broncos scored a TD, but the Chiefs got a 44-yard kickoff runback, eventually got to the Broncos’ 1-yard line, but had a touchdown called back due to a false start with 4 seconds to play, and failed to score on fourth down.
Brownout
Malcontent receiver A.J. Brown, who forced a July 1 trade that crippled the Eagles’ salary cap for the next two seasons, now has missed five of the Patriots’ first eight games; Games 2-5 with an ankle sprain and Game 8 with a knee ailment that likely is a flare-up of his chronic knee condition.
The Pats are 1-2 in games with Brown, 4-1 without him after a 24-19 win at Miami.
Extra points
The Buccaneers and Baker Mayfield didn’t complete a pass in their 16-0 rainy home win over the Falcons. Mayfield was 0-for-3. Atlanta quarterback Michael Penix Jr. was 8-for-24 — but had four interceptions. It’s the first time a team without a completion won a game since the Bills beat the Jets on Sept. 24, 1974, when Joe Ferguson went 0-for-2 in a 16-12 win. O.J. Simpson had 117 rushing yards on 31 carries. Jets star Joe Namath had two completions — and three interceptions. ... Daniel Jones, benched in the fourth quarter of a 42-7 loss at Jacksonville, might lose his job as the Colts’ starter, while old Eagles friend Gardner Minshew might have taken over for Jacoby Brissett as Arizona’s starter after leading the Cards to their fifth straight win over the Cowboys.
