After the Jalen Hurts news came out, that he’s done for the season due to blood clots being found in his lungs, it should come as little surprise that the Eagles are being linked among the potential trade deadline sellers.
Even though the NFC East is wide open and Tanner McKee could lead this team to a division title, the Eagles might be better off selling at the deadline this year, with little hope of winning a title.
If the Eagles do sell, Saquon Barkley is a name to watch. He’s popped up in trade rumors lately and could actually be on the move this year. But as ESPN’s Dan Graziano revealed, the Eagles can demand a lofty price for Barkley in a trade this season.
Why Eagles can demand a high price for Saquon Barkley in a potential trade
“The Eagles would have to take a dead-money cap charge of a little more than $26 million in 2027. He’s owed $16 million guaranteed for 2027, of which only $2.5 million is guaranteed at this point,” Graziano writes.
Those financial figures reveal the Eagles would be taking on a massive amount of dead cap if they traded Barkley this season. However, there’s a lot more than just the Eagles’ impact at play here.
Graziano notes that a team trading for Barkley would “be responsible for only a prorated portion of his $1.3 million veteran-minimum salary; so acquiring him today would put you on the hook for about $867,000 in salary for the rest of this season.”
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Any team would jump at the opportunity to have such a talented player like Barkley for a year at such a cheap price. But that’s exactly why the Eagles will be able to demand so much in return.
Since they’re already eating a ton of his contract, Howie Roseman would be able to demand a lot from an acquiring team for Barkley.
As Graziano put it, Barkley would be a “low-risk acquisition from a financial standpoint, which tells us the Eagles could demand a very high price if they decided to move him.”
There is no guarantee the Eagles will actually trade Barkley this season. But if they do, whatever team wins the bidding war is going to have to give up a king’s ransom to get Roseman and the Eagles to bite.
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What could that potential trade look like? Even though Barkley is a 29-year-old running back who’s currently dealing with a hamstring injury, he’ll be worth a ton. A first-round pick might be too much, but a second-rounder and more isn’t impossible.
Players like this don’t become available often, so if there’s a contender in need of running back help, like the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Houston Texans, Seattle Seahawks, or Denver Broncos, then Barkley might be a no-brainer option to target.
It’s going to cost that team a ton in terms of draft capital to get him, and the Eagles will have every right to demand such a massive offer for their star running back this Fall.
