A good artist is someone who can grab hold of the matter in our dreams and turn it into reality. The football general manager equivalent of that is someone who can take trades that Tino from Fishtown proposes on WIP—you know the ones that get him laughed off the air because they’re completely ridiculous and not based in reality—and actually bring them to fruition.
This is why, on Monday, the football world again professed our collective love for Eagles GM Howie Roseman, who stole a two-time All-Pro safety, Kevin Byard, from the Titans. The cost? A fifth- and sixth-round pick in the 2024 draft, and safety Terrell Edmunds. While Byard is 30 and high-mileage players decline in value like used pontoons after they reach their third decade, he is still an elite pass defender who doesn’t miss tackles and is just as comfortable operating at the line of scrimmage. Like Malcolm Jenkins during Philadelphia’s 2017 championship season, Byard can make the defense more amoebic without sacrificing run support.
The pros of this trade are obvious. An injury-battered Eagles secondary gets a player who, a few years ago, may have been considered one of the best defensive players in the sport. It feels inevitable that Byard will make some kind of play against Travis Kelce in a Super Bowl rematch, because this is the kind of move that general managers interested in making it to Las Vegas make. Philadelphia’s matchup against the 49ers in Week 13 will be instructive as to how far Byard can elevate a defense against teams with multiple, big-bodied threats and a downhill running game.
The con is just one lingering question I have about the team that traded Byard away: Why does Tennessee keep letting this happen?
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To be clear, there is nothing wrong with getting assets back for a player who is not going to help a team in the long-term, and will cost more in cash than the value he will bring the team in the interim. The Titans probably will not be seriously competing for the AFC crown at any point in the next year or two. The Titans basically got themselves a fourth-round pick (roughly the value of a combined fifth and sixth-round pick) and Edmunds, a former first-round pick with a higher remaining ceiling than Byard, just by virtue of having fewer snaps behind him and more ahead of him. In terms of a haul, it is not bad.
The problem is in perception. The Titans have essentially built the foundation of another Eagles Super Bowl bid. The A.J. Brown trade, which was consummated by a different general manager, continues to be regarded as one of the most one-sided deals of the past 10 years. Brown is only getting better. He single-handedly toppled a Vic Fangio secondary on Sunday Night Football, in case you missed it.
Now, a new general manager is shipping another one of the franchise’s cornerstone players, an example of prior successes and processes, to a team that will help him realize his fullest potential (in terms of being able to reach a Super Bowl). How does that not reestablish the feeling in your locker room that winning big—and in Brown’s case, getting paid—just happens somewhere else? How does everyone not feel a little like the Eagles’ farm team?
I’m not blaming Mike Vrabel, who I’m sure enjoyed the Brown trade the way we might love stepping on a lego in the middle of the night, or closing the fat of our hand in the car door. It’s more of a sympathy. In a perfect world, he’d still have Brown, and the Titans would be competitive, not just driving Derek Henry like a lost Humvee through the desert.
In Philadelphia’s modern run of championship contention (their Super Bowl LII win to now), we’ve seen their rises timed with this idea of rewarding and taking care of tenured talent. Most everyone gets paid, or at the very least, supported. I wrote about this last year when the Eagles shelled out for a pair of defensive tackles to alleviate the pressure on their overworked defensive line.
Tennessee doesn’t have the luxury of operating that way, and it’s probably not sensible to right now, which is why the Titans found themselves as sellers at the trade deadline in the first place. It’s more of a look at what could have been, juxtaposed with what is happening now. Another good player gone to Philly. Another radio caller fever dream come true. And, another group of Titans wondering whether this is simply the path forward now.
