This offseason continues to produce absolute heat for our entertainment, and the folks here at Dynasty Nerds have done a tremendous job keeping you up to speed on it all. However, a fun trade was made between the Philadelphia Eagles and New Orleans Saints.
The trade included no players, but it included a multitude of picks and thus created scenarios for you, the fantasy player, to weigh. If you have heavy investments on either team, you could be seeing a major shake-up either immediately or next year. The Saints getting two picks in the first this year shows they want to go all-in and win now. For the Eagles to keep two this year and add another for next year shows they are thinking long-term.
For the Saints, who do they win with now? And for the Eagles, who is a part of the long-term plans? These questions and the possible answers need exploring in this Eagles and Saints trade.
Scenario One: The Saints Try and Win Now
Early talk surrounding the Saints angle of this trade centered around going offensive tackle at pick 16. The Los Angeles Chargers are rumored to be looking at tackles in this class, so that jump leads the speculation. If that is what they want, they could grab one of the high upside tackles, such as Trevor Penning and Bernard Rhaiman. Penning comes from Northern Iowa, so he doesn’t have the spotlight that the top guys have had. As for Rhaiman, he comes from Central Michigan by way of Austria and has barely played much-organized football but has the physical tools to thrive.
The luxury pick comes into play with their second pick at pick 19, and people expect a receiver to be the choice. Michael Thomas was injured last year and was a potential cut candidate for the team before they redid his contract. They don’t want to pepper him with targets anymore, so someone like a Chris Olave or a Jahan Dotson at 19 would be an excellent WR2 behind Thomas. They could even be elevated to a WR1 in the instance of injury again for Thomas. Either way, this is a healthy fantasy relationship developing in this scenario.
Scenario Two: The Eagles Want to Build Around Jalen Hurts
Another healthy relationship seems to be between the Philadelphia Eagles and Jalen Hurts. Hurts, depending on who you ask, is good enough for the job. Or he isn’t. The great part is that only a person’s opinion matters. For Howie Roseman, he has been nothing but supportive of Hurts publicly and privately, so this strikes me as a build-up move.
With picks 15 and 18 in their possession, they could take the tackle away from New Orleans or go interior lineman like Tyler Linderbaum. With pick 18, they could follow suit with New Orleans and give Devonta Smith a WR2 opposite him. For fantasy purposes, that is bad news for Smith and whoever they draft at receiver, but good for Jalen Hurts. Hurts has shown despite peppering Smith with targets last year, he couldn’t put up WR1 numbers. The arrival of another mouth to feed would further cement doubts.
Scenario Three: Eagles Build Around a Quarterback, but it is not Jalen Hurts
Now for the devy readers waiting for their angle in this Eagles and Saints trade, this is where my head went immediately. I alluded to it earlier, Roseman has professed undeniable love for Hurts. Without results, though, we have seen him not be afraid to pull the trigger on a quarterback.
The acquisition of the 2023 1st and 2024 2nd allows Roseman and the Eagles to put together a package if need be to get a top-end quarterback next year. This year’s class of quarterbacks has something, but that something is unknown. Looking ahead to next year, though, we have several names that could be viable starters, such as C.J. Stroud, Bryce Young, and a potentially rebounding Spencer Rattler. If we are being honest, who would you rather have at this point?
