TRADING or outright releasing. That’s what most of us thought would happen with OLB Mychal Kendricks, RB Ryan Mathews, and C Jason Kelce, prior to the 2017 Draft. As of today (6.28.17) all three are still Eagles. The thinking was that the Front Office would want to free up cap space, to continue this rebuild with players who better fit what we’ll be doing.
The hope was for us to offer a couple trade packages (consisting of one of these players and a pick), to help us move up a few spots in the same round of the 2017 Draft. Well, nothing of that sort happened. Hence not one, not two, but all three of those guys are still here. Six points to you if you saw that coming. (Bonus two points to anyone who thought we’d take a DE in the first round.)
I got to wondering what fans think we should do with those guys now, but I didn’t want to ask too broad of a question. I decided to break it into three pieces and then review the parts next week. So I posed a question in EAGLES MANIACS (my Eagles Facebook group), and a few other Eagles groups to which I belong. This is that question:
My initial plan was to ask two more questions, but what I saw disturbed me, and I thought it needed addressing immediately. The percentage of fans who thought we should just cut both Mathews and Kendricks, was distressing to say the least.
Eagles fans may be frustrated with them, but Mathews and Kendricks are solid NFL veterans. They wouldn’t spend long in an unemployment line. They’d be fine and we’d be fine, but that’s not the point. That’s not the problem. What bugged me is how many people were willing to accept low-ball, or no-ball offers for these players. Fans were literally ASKING for this team to get hosed on a trade, or worse, get nothing at all for arming another team. For example:
Releasing them for nothing would just be stupid. Just plain stupid. Giving away talent was something we hated about TIK , remember? First, because we’d be giving away solid players for no compensation. Secondly, if the Eagles cut any of them, we’re still on the hook for paying them this season. It would take a trade (with specific language included) to remove the Eagles financial obligation to these players.
What makes more sense is to find away to move these players prior to camp. Waiting for a camp injury leaves too much to chance, and puts us in the position of almost wishing for some hardworking players to get hurt. That’s classless and wrong, so we won’t do that. (It’s Eagles, not vultures.) The smart thing would be to move these players before a team needs them. (By the way: This would help us out with future trades. ASK ME HOW!)
Ryan Mathews for example. We could partner with a team that has no depth at RB (Detroit, Green Bay); or a team who’s RB is 150 years old (New York (J), Indianapolis); or a team still trying to determine if they have a legitimate RB in their stable (Denver).
There are options on the table. We just need to take one sooner than later.
EAGLEMANIACAL.com 