The Twitter world is blowing up right now with news that the Washington Redskins have traded away their 37th overall pick in this year's draft to give the Eagles yet another pick to work with in the 2010 draft. Philadelphia now has 5 of the first 87 picks in this year's draft and 11 picks overall.
As a playoff team at 11-5, the likelihood that the Eagles could find and draft 11 players that could make their team and contribute is unlikely, so there is a very good chance that the Eagles could look to trade up to an early spot in the first round. With Gene Smith having said that he would like to trade back and receive a 2nd round pick to replace the one lost in a trade for Derek Cox, might we have a match made in heaven between the Eagles and Jaguars.
Looking at past drafts, the teams most likely to make a big trade up into the top half of the first round are teams that feel they are only a piece or two away from a Super Bowl contender. The Eagles are making all the power play moves this offseason that indicate that they feel this way. Going into this offseason, the problems that the Eagle front office had to face were predominantly on the defensive side of the ball.
The single most important need to address had to be their pass rush. Although Trent Cole is definitely a dynamic pass rusher, Victor Abiamiri is not starting NFL quality and needed to be replaced. The Eagles addressed this bytrading for Browns DE Alex Hall and for Seahawks DE Darryl Tapp. In the trade for Alex Hall, the Eagles lost starting cornerback Sheldon Brown, making the CB position their new biggest need.
At the 10th pick in the draft, Joe Haden is very likely to be on the board when the Jaguars are on the clock. With the CB spot opposite Asante Samuel seeming to be the only spot left that the Eagles would want to address with a superstar player, the Eagles are the perfect candidate to trade with the Jaguars.
According to the trade value chart, the Jaguars could trade the 10th pick in exchange for the 24th and 37th picks and win the trade. However, typically in situations where a team trades up so far, the team lower in the draft order will give a discount in order to make the trade work. Meaning that a much more likely scenario would be that the Eagles trade their 24th and 55th picks along with a 4th or 5th round pick to acquire the 10th overall selection.
-Adam Stites