Dominoes Are Falling: How They Affect The Eagles

Several significant dominoes have fallen around the NFL, and while they haven’t overtly involved the Eagles, the fallout further clarifies Philadelphia’s position with the legal negotiating period looming on Monday.

GM Howie Roseman still has to declare his short-term intention with star wideout A.J. Brown, while the top priority in free agency remains retaining edge defender Jaelan Phillips.

If you peel back the onion, Chicago sending D.J. Moore and a 2026 fifth-round draft pick to Buffalo for a second-round pick (a third-round value in league circles) removed the Bills from being a Brown suitor, a significant pawn in the leverage game Roseman is trying to create because the executive doesn’t want to move his three-time second-team All-Pro wideout in the conference.

With two days until the negotiating period, it looks like New England or the status quo for Brown. And the latter only pushes things back to other significant windows for personnel moves like draft weekend, perhaps late in August (the Micah Parsons template), the in-season trade deadline, and a year from now, when it would be much more palatable to move Brown from a salary-cap standpoint.

The growing sentiment around the league is not if but when the Eagles will eventually move Brown.

Meanwhile, out in Las Vegas, the Maxx Crosby situation was resolved with the Baltimore Ravens sending two first-round picks – No. 14 overall in April and a 2027 first-rounder – to the Raiders for the star pass rusher.

Eagles rumors, fueled by some Lane Johnson social-media recruitment and a lesser-known insider floating the idea that the Eagles would have sent Jalen Carter to Vegas if needed, came up empty.

In fact, from what we’ve learned, the Eagles were never serious players from the Raiders’ perspective, where the goal was to get draft picks for a roster that their GM John Spytek recently admitted the organization had to be “super honest” about.

To show you the significance of the Ravens offer, it was the first time in the franchise’s 31-year history that it traded a first-round pick to secure a player, and they used two to do it.

Things Are Getting Clearer