File this one away under “obvious” and “duh,” but ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter reports Sunday morning that the Eagles remain interested in trading wide receiver Alshon Jeffery ahead of the upcoming NFL trade deadline. In this piece for ESPN.com that also includes several other trade rumors, Schefter reports that the Eagles had also discussed tight end Zach Ertz and wide receiver DeSean Jackson before their injuries. Here is the full blurb about the Eagles:
The Philadelphia Eagles were listening to offers on tight end Zach Ertz, but the star tight end is on injured reserve and now barred from being traded, according to new NFL rules. Philadelphia has a similar situation with injured wide receiver DeSean Jackson, but the Eagles would listen to any offers for wide receiver Alshon Jeffery.
The Eagles being interested in trading Alshon Jeffery is no surprise, as that has reportedly been the case dating back to last season. It’s also not a surprise that they have failed to find a team willing to take the veteran—and his contract—on, even for a minimal return. We detailed the complete Alshon Jeffery situation last week, and the contract that Howie Roseman gave Jeffery last year remains one of his biggest blunders.
Jeffery was still recovering from offseason foot surgery at the beginning of the season, but Roseman and the Eagles opted to add him on the active roster rather than keep him on the PUP list, which would have prevented him from playing or practicing for six weeks. This week, Jeffery is missing his eighth straight game. And with the Eagles on a bye week in Week 9, Jeffery will have missed more than half of the season even if he suits up against the Giants in Week 10.
Many around the NFL have speculated that the Eagles opted to keep Jeffery active in hopes of trading him at some point. In an ideal scenario, Jeffery would have returned to the field a couple of weeks ago, showed that he was healthy and could still contribute on offense, and then the Eagles would have been able to trade him for something like a conditional late-round pick in 2022.
However, Jeffery was slow to recover from his foot injury and then picked up a new calf injury a couple of weeks ago. He has yet to see the field, and we don’t know if he is close to returning.
The Eagles can remain willing to listen to any offers for Alshon Jeffery, but it’s unlikely they’ll receive any. At this point, even if the Eagles agree to include a late-round pick of their own to facilitate a trade, they probably won’t find a team out there desperate enough for help at wide receiver to take on that contract.
As for Zach Ertz
Under Article XVII, Section 17.16, clubs were previously not allowed to trade players who were on injured reserve. That rule was changed in 2018 after a proposal from the Broncos and John Elway, but there was a tweak to the rule for 2020 that prevents trading players on injured reserve with a “minor designation.”
In a recent NFL trade deadline primer for SI.com, Albert Breer explains the situation
The Eagles have gotten a lot of calls on their players as well, which makes sense given how their season’s gone and where their cap is the next couple of years. Alshon Jeffery is very clearly available. There have been calls on tight end Zach Ertz, too, and Philly delaying a day or two on moving Ertz to IR raised some eyebrows—this year, you have to designate guys on IR as having major or minor injuries, and guys categorized as having minor injuries can’t be traded. The Eagles designated Ertz as a minor injury, so that’s that on him.
This means the Eagles can’t trade Ertz this season. And regardless of his designation, DeSean Jackson’s injury (he’s going to miss approximately the next two months) means no team will be trading for him this season, either.
