Howie Roseman hits a home run with Jordan Davis trade, netting the Eagles a first and a second
Howie Roseman did Howie Roseman things on Monday. And he might just be getting warmed up.
Howie Szn came early this year.
Eagles general manager Howie Roseman sent three messages Monday afternoon when he traded Jordan Davis.
No. 1: He realizes this season is over.
No. 2: No one is sacred, not even a popular, productive team captain.
No. 3: I still got it, baby.
Since winning Super Bowl LIX, Roseman delivered two poor drafts and a handful of unwise signings and extensions.
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However, even as the Eagles’ offense founders, the cap-crippling trade of malcontent receiver A.J. Brown (one of the extension mistakes) looks better every day, considering Brown has played in three games, has nine catches, no touchdowns, and a bad knee.
And now, he has sent Davis to Jacksonville for a first-round pick in 2027 and a second-rounder in 2029. At 6-2, they have a three-game lead in the AFC South, they have a favorable schedule remaining, and their top-10 defense became a much more formidable defense. Also on Monday they acquired safety Jessie Bates, 29, from the Falcons, and run-stopping defensive tackle Davon Godchaux, 31, from the Saints.
Both Bates and Godchaux are free agents next season. Davis, 26, is under contract through 2029. He just signed a three-year, $78 million extension in March.
Was that a Roseman mistake? Well, after nine games Davis has just 1½ sacks, compared with the 4½ he had last season, and his snap-count percentage has dropped from 61% to 52%, but he wasn’t terrible.
He certainly wasn’t worth two draft picks that could both land between Nos. 30 and 55 — or much better. Roseman recently drafted All-Pro corner Cooper DeJean (40), team sack co-leader Nolan Smith Jr. (30), Pro Bowl guard Landon Dickerson (37), and Pro Bowl center Cam Jurgens (51) between Nos. 30 and 55.
Oh yes: And Jalen Hurts (53).
The trade of Davis implies that the Eagles are committed to extending the contract of defensive tackle Moro Ojomo, who is a free agent after this season. But it only implies it. Ojomo, 25, might be playing more than Davis, but is he playing much better? Ojomo, a seventh-round success story from the 2023 draft, had six sacks in 2025. He has none this season.
» READ MORE: Has Saquon Barkley’s trade status changed? After two losses and the Jordan Davis trade, it should | NFL Week 9
Whether Ojomo stays or goes, Roseman has crushed it again.
This wasn’t just a home run.
This was a Kyle Schwarber home run. A Dick Allen home run.
A Howie Roseman home run.
Credit to Roseman, and, of course, owner Jeffrey Lurie, whose approval is mandatory for transactions of this magnitude. They have acknowledged that any team quarterbacked by practice-squad refugee Joe Milton has no real chance to reach the playoffs. Hurts has blood clots, Tanner McKee flopped, Andy Dalton was another Roseman mistake, and rookie Cole Payton isn’t ready.
Only one team has ever made the NFL postseason after a 2-7 start. The Eagles would have to win seven of their last eight games to finish above .500.
With games remaining against the Steelers (6-2), Cowboys (who blew them out in Philly), Seahawks (defending Super Bowl champs), 49ers (7-1), and Giants (who just beat them Sunday), the playoffs are as much a statistical impossibility as they are an empirical impossibility.
Credit to the brass for also realizing that the locker-room culture that endured the unprofessionalism of the likes of Brown, Jalen Carter, and C.J. Gardner-Johnson has, in the absence of retirees like Fletcher Cox, Jason Kelce, Brandon Graham, and Lane Johnson, decayed to a degree that even high-character sorts such as Davis cannot stop the rot.
A full 24 hours remained before the Tuesday 4 p.m. deadline when Davis was traded.
If he can go, why not linebacker Zack Baun? Why not running back Saquon Barkley? Why not Ojomo?
After fleecing the Patriots with Brown and nailing the Jags with Davis, Roseman’s got to be feeling good at the plate.
He should take some more big swings.
A crucial crossroads is here. The Eagles have reached the bye and, as timing would also have it, the NFL trade deadline, mired in their worst stretch of the Nick Sirianni era. There’s no doubt the franchise needs to course correct, but how? With who? Will players be on the move? Could coaches’ jobs be on the line? The Inquirer’s Jeff McLane and Olivia Reiner conduct an autopsy of the Eagles after their seventh straight loss — a 19-11 defeat to the New York Giants — and look at the big picture of an organization that has swiftly fallen far from its Super Bowl glory two years ago. Listen here.
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