A week to go until the NFL trade deadline, so that’s where we’ll start this Tuesday of Week 8 …
• At the risk of saying Eagles GM Howie Roseman “did it again,” it’s fair to look at Philly’s trade for veteran Titans safety Kevin Byard and conclude that the executive took the football world to school (again) from an asset management standpoint.
The guts of the deal: The Eagles will send 2024 fifth- and sixth-rounders, plus the safety that will replace Byard on the roster (Terrell Edmunds) for the two-time All-Pro.
We can start with Philly’s trade of former first-rounder Jalen Reagor to the Vikings. That deal, sending away a distressed asset, brought home a 2024 fifth-round pick. The Eagles then made a deal with the Saints for C.J. Gardner-Johnson, a starter for them last year, trading away the lower of their two fifth-round selections. They restored that fifth-rounder by dealing their ’23 sixth-rounder (which became Trey Palmer) to Tampa Bay for a ’24 fifth. And in this latest move, they agreed to send the higher of their fifths to Tennessee.
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Confused? We’re just getting started. But, essentially with the fifth-rounders, this means the Saints will get either the Eagles’ slot or the Vikings’ slot in the fifth-round, whichever is lower; the Titans will get either the Buccaneers’ or Eagles’ slot, whichever is higher; and Philly will wind up with the pick remaining.
As for the sixth-rounder, Philly already has the Titans’ sixth-rounder as the result of the trade of backup OL Ugo Amadi (as part of a pick swap that cost the Eagles their seventh-rounder). The Byard deal gives the Titans the higher of the sixth-rounders, which almost certainly means Tennessee will get its own sixth-rounder back.
So the Eagles still have picks in both rounds, got a year from Gardner-Johnson, acquired Byard, and all they gave away was a couple of guys who were getting cut, the guy Byard is replacing, a sixth-rounder this year and a seventh-rounder in 2024. And that’s without even getting to the comp picks the team expects for departed free agents such as Isaac Seumalo, Andre Dillard, T.J. Edwards, Miles Sanders and Marcus Epps, which will help to restock Day 3 picks.
That’s Roseman doing a masterly job of utilizing resources. Now as for the player Philly is getting …
• Saying goodbye to Byard is, for sure, difficult for Titans folks.
The 30-year-old veteran with 111 consecutive starts—he became a starter midway through his rookie year (2016) and has started each and every game since—has been the quarterback of Tennessee’s defense and a torchbearer for the culture Mike Vrabel has built there over the past six seasons. And that, really, is what the Eagles are buying here, according to those who’ve coached against him recently.
“Really smart player,” texted one rival offensive coordinator. “Reads the QB’s eyes. Elite ball skills. Average range. Instinctive player. Good pickup. Just smart, dependable and durable.”
“Smart player who’s a turnover creator,” said another offensive coordinator. “Versatile and can cover tight ends well. Philly got a good player.”
I did ask the second OC to verify what I’d heard, that athletically Byard might not be quite what he was a couple of years ago when he made first-team All-Pro. The coach responded that Byard’s probably lost “half a step. Just a bit, but he can still play.”
Byard should slide in next to Reed Blankenship—who’s been banged up—at safety, with rookie Sydney Brown a promising option in reserve. The position, truth be told, was one of two that had become a bit of an issue after veterans left in free agency in March and their replacements struggled to match their level of play. The other trouble spot is off-ball linebacker, so the Eagles could still make a move (Denver’s Josey Jewell?) there.
One last thing on Byard: He’s owed the remainder of his $4 million base for 2023, which comes to about $2.4 million for the Eagles. He’s due $14.1 million next year in nonguaranteed cash, which gives Philly a pricey team option for ’24.
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• Bears undrafted free agent quarterback Tyson Bagent was one of the fun stories of the weekend, and the former Division II All-American’s path to the field actually includes an interesting twist that prepared him for his first NFL start Sunday, a 30–12 Bears win over the Raiders.
In camp, it’s tough for guys such as Bagent to come by reps. It gets even harder if they make the team—and are down the depth chart when the season starts—because the focus shifts to getting starters ready on a week-to-week basis. So for Bagent, most practice work would come running the opponent’s offense on the scout team.
“The coaches do a really good job, [OC Luke] Getsy and [QBs coach Andrew] Janocko, with him,” Bears coach Matt Eberflus told me Sunday after the game. “What we’ve done since he’s become a backup, we started these developmental periods at the end of practice. He would get most of the plays during practice that Justin [Fields] would get during practice to really get him up to speed. That, to me, was the most important thing that we did.
“Obviously, the education of him working through the situational football and all those things, he did a really good job with that. He’s super smart. He’s able to chunk a lot of information together, which the good quarterbacks can do.”
The other thing that helped, according to Eberflus, was actually Fields.
“He was great during the week working with Tyson, helping him understand the concepts and talking to him during practice,” Eberflus says. “Before the game, he’s working through the first 15, [Saturday] night and [Sunday], making sure he was squared away with those things. In between series, he was right there with him, trying to help and talk to him about what’s going on with the defense, where they are. He did a really good job.
“That just shows you the kind of person he is.”
As for what Eberflus liked about Bagent, the Bears’ coach listed his poise, confidence and ability to distribute and get the ball in the hands of skill players in the win.
That said, Eberflus also was straightforward about what’ll happen when Fields returns.
“Justin’s our starter,” he says. “Bagent came in and did a nice job, certainly with this win. It’s a credit to him, and it’s a credit to the entire offensive staff.”
• After his game-winning touchdown Sunday, I asked Mike Gesicki whether he and his Patriots teammates saw the Bills game as a must-win—or as much of a must-win as you can have going into Week 7. Gesicki, for his part, didn’t say no.
“I do think that we put ourselves in that position that we needed to get a win,” Gesicki says. “We played a really good team in Buffalo. I’ve been playing against them now for six years. They kind of run the division now for the last three, four, five years. They’ve done a great job. That’s just a really good football team. For us to go out there and win that game, it shows what we can be and what we’re capable of.”
And as for the perception that they were finished at 1–5, I did ask Gesicki whether he and his teammates heard it during the week. He didn’t say no.
“You try to block it out,” he says. “For the most part, I’d say that we do. There’s some of it that still creeps in. You kind of understand the narrative about what’s being said about the team. It doesn’t really mean anything to us at the end of the day. We just try to go out there, make plays, try to win games.”
Next up for New England is a trip to Miami. If they can go down there and beat the division leaders, then I’d say the conversation around the Patriots really starts to change.
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• It’s interesting that three of the teams seen as sellers as we draw closer to the trade deadline—Vikings, Broncos and Patriots—all won games this weekend.
Should they still sell? There are always complications to decisions such as these, but one thing I feel confident saying is that, for those three, what they saw in Week 7 shouldn’t cloud the bigger picture. None of the three is close to competing for a championship. All have assets that other teams would value. So if you’re going hunting for picks, and all three of those teams are at least looking at what they can get, the short term shouldn’t affect that.
Danielle Hunter remains a guy that could bring back a Day 2 pick for the Vikings, something they’re considering, and K.J. Osborn, Jordan Hicks and Harrison Smith are others who could draw interest. Denver needs picks, and Jewell, Justin Simmons, Jerry Jeudy, Courtland Sutton and Garett Bolles are among their movable pieces, with teams having called on Patrick Surtain II (it’d cost a lot to get him), too.
As for the Patriots, my understanding is they’re open-minded and will listen to offers. Josh Uche, Mike Onwenu, Kyle Dugger, Kendrick Bourne and Trent Brown are among those in contract years that might be of interest (though the offensive line has had so many issues, that moving Brown or Onwenu might make you nonfunctional).
Should be a fascinating week ahead, and, again, I’d bet these three stay whatever course they’d set before Week 7.
• Justyn Ross is in trouble with the law now, so it may be a moot point. But I’d been asked a lot about why the Chiefs haven’t played him more—he’s had only 81 snaps on offense in seven games this year—at a time when his position is in transition.
What I’ve heard is there are football issues here. He’s been inconsistent in practice and, while he’s big, he’s not very fast and struggles running some routes. That makes him a tough fit in an offense where receivers are moved around constantly, and asked to be versatile in what they bring to the table.
Add it up, and it feels like he’s just a matchup guy for you, and those types generally play sparingly until they evolve. Which, again, might be the least of his problems now.
• I don’t know whether it felt to you like there were more ticky-tack penalties on defensive players in coverage this week, but it certainly did to me.
Let’s start with the statistics. While numbers on defensive pass interference and defensive holding were stagnant this week, there was a sizable uptick in illegal contact penalties (nine league-wide, which was three more than any other week and more than double the previous per-week average of 4.2), and a couple of those were very high-profile.
Anecdotally, there were also some … let’s call them soft pass interference and holding calls.
So is it possible the NFL saw defenses ahead of offenses right now, and put in a point of emphasis for officials to call this stuff more aggressively? And if they did so, would it make defensive players back off a little, and make the passing game look a little more like 7-on-7 football again? Yes and yes. Also, the NFL did have an owners meeting last week where these types of things are discussed.
Which should give all of us something to keep an eye on in Week 8.
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• This quote from Nick Bosa’s postgame press conference is one we should all file away, as we process the ebbs and flows of the NFL season: “The NFL will humble you every step of the way. Getting off to a 5–0 start, you kind of get that confidence that you are who we need to be. But the NFL does that. Good players, good schemes, and we’re going to face another good team this week, so we gotta be ready.”
Bosa’s point—all this evolves as the year goes, and teams on top have to constantly stay ahead of the curve if they want to remain on top. No matter how good they are (and the Niners looked damn good through five weeks).
• The NFL looking into injury reporting on the Bijan Robinson situation is more interesting now since the league doesn’t have to lie anymore and pretend that the requirements governing it aren’t about gambling. We’ll see where that goes with the Falcons, but the case could create some interesting precedents moving forward.
• Buffalo’s in an interesting spot heading into Thursday night’s game against the Buccaneers. A loss and the Bills would go into their minibye at 4–4, with a fan base sure to sound the alarm. Those longer layoffs can sometimes lead to staff changes for teams, because the extra time allows for an easier transition. I’m not suggesting anything is afoot, but this is clearly a big stretch for Buffalo coming off a really rough three weeks.
