The Philadelphia Eagles officially turned the page to the 2025 season with a flurry of moves this week, announcing the impending release of veteran cornerback Darius Slay, a monster two-year extension for running back Saquon Barkley, and a new three-year mega deal for inside linebacker Zack Baun.
How aggressive the Eagles will be in the first wave of NFL free agency next week is now fair to question. The expectation, per insider Jeremy Fowler, is that both defensive tackle Milton Williams and EDGE Josh Sweat will hit the open market, making it more likely than not that they land rich multi-year contracts with new teams.
While the Eagles should still have plenty of cap space to bring back key glue guys like Mekhi Becton, Oren Burks and Isaiah Rodgers, they’ll likely be banking on the 2025 NFL Draft to round out key position groups like the secondary, pass rush and trenches.
With an eye on bolstering their poor 2025 draft capital as the reigning Super Bowl champions, analyst Lance Zierlein predicts the Eagles will trade out of the first round if they can find a partner. In his latest draft projections for NFL.com, Zierlein had the Eagles trading pick No. 32 overall to the Chicago Bears:
It could be tempting to grab a receiver like Emeka Egbuka, but Ryan Poles is determined to fix his offensive line, so a trade up for a sturdy C/OG like (North Dakota State’s Grey Zabel) would make sense. Caleb Williams certainly would benefit from two first-round O-linemen.
Zierlein didn’t include the trade compensation going back to Philadelphia, but let’s assume the Eagles move back seven spots, to pick No. 39 overall, while adding Chicago’s third-round pick, No. 72 overall, to their board. The Bears currently hold a pair of second-round picks, and GMs Ryan Poles and Howie Roseman have done draft-day business in the past, notably in 2023 when Philly moved up to select Jalen Carter at No. 9 overall.
The Eagles currently hold seven selections for April’s draft, but only three are inside the top 100. They’re scheduled to pick at Nos. 32, 64 and 96, and it wouldn’t be a surprise at all to see Roseman make multiple moves on Day 2 in an attempt to score his next Cooper DeJean. He has three fifth-round picks at his disposal, but none in the sixth or seventh rounds for 2025.
Philly made a number of moves during the 2024 free agent signing period, adding key starters or contributors in Barkley, Baun, Becton, Burks, Rodgers and C.J. Gardner-Johnson. With a ton of real future cash already committed to their top 10 or so players, 2025 free agency should look a lot different, and that makes April’s draft even more intriguing.
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