The Philadelphia Eagles will enter the 2025 NFL Draft extremely thin at one of the most important positions in football, and speculation continues to swirl on how GM Howie Roseman will go about addressing it.
EDGE rusher figures to be a top priority in the draft after the Eagles lost veterans Josh Sweat and Brandon Graham this offseason. So far, they’ve replaced them with a pair of second-round draft busts in Azeez Ojulari and Joshua Uche, and Philly could be replacing the struggling (and grossly overpaid) Bryce Huff in short order as well.
Top EDGE prospects like James Pearce Jr. and Donovan Ezeiruaku have been popular projections for the Eagles by draft analysts in recent weeks. But when it comes to Roseman and the Eagles, you can never rule out a blockbuster trade, and Andrew Vasquez of USA TODAY’s Steelers Wire believes Philly could be the perfect landing spot for disgruntled superstar T.J. Watt.
Watt, who has one year and a little over $21 million in cash remaining on his current deal, is due for an extension, and insider Ian Rapoport believes his camp is looking for Myles Garrett money: in the range of $40 per year. Pittsburgh will do everything in its power to get a deal done with its most important singular player, but with Watt entering his age-31 season, there’s at least an outside chance the Steelers weigh what would be a whopping return in a trade.
Here’s why Vasquez views Philadelphia as an ideal trade parter:
This one would sting—but it would make a lot of sense if the Steelers aren’t competitive around the 2025 trade deadline. The Eagles have a young, unproven edge rush duo and could see Watt as a potential rental for another Super Bowl run. Could Philadelphia offer a king’s ransom for a potential two-peat, spearheaded by Watt’s presence on defense?
Roseman loves to add big-name talent to his roster, which is why Philly was often named as a landing spot for Garrett during his contract standoff with the Browns earlier this offseason. But based on the current financial situation going on in Philly, there’s no shot the team makes a mega trade like this in 2025.
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The main reason Philly moved on from high-end talent like Sweat, Milton Williams and C.J. Gardner-Johnson this offseason is the significant amount of cash the team has already committed to player salaries in future years, especially on offense. The team has been actively working to clear future space for franchise players like Jalen Carter, Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean. Committing north of $35 million per year for an aging Watt would fly in the face of those efforts.
Vasquez’s idea of a potential trade-deadline rental is interesting, but not all that realistic. Even if their EDGE rusher situation is a disaster in 2025, the Eagles wouldn’t give up a king’s ransom for Watt just to rent him for another Super Bowl run. They’d only be able to justify the kind of draft capital it would take to get a deal done if Watt was willing to sign an extension, which brings us back to the current issues with Philly’s finances. The Eagles currently lead the NFL in cash committed in 2026, 2027 and 2028.
The Eagles have enough capable players at the position, led by Nolan Smith Jr. and Jalyx Hunt, that they can afford to stay the course, continue adding on defense in the draft, and avoid dropping the kind of coin it would take to add a face-of-the-franchise type player like Watt to the mix.
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