The Philadelphia Eagles are having the type of season that sends good vibes flowing out in every direction — a welcome rebound from their late-season collapse in 2023.
Sitting at 10-2 and on an 8-game winning streak headed into a Week 14 home game against the Carolina Panthers, there’s not a hotter team in the NFL right now. A deeper look into how and why thing got to this point for the Eagles reveals a series of deft financial and personnel moves they should look to emulate in the offseason.
Free-agent moves paid off big. The Eagles signed running back and NFL MVP candidate Saquon Barkley to a 3-year, $37.75 million contract that now seems like the steal of the century. They signed inside linebacker and leading tackler Zack Baun to a 1-year, $1.6 million contract.
Then, there was the 2024 NFL draft, where the Eagles hit home runs with back-to-back picks in the first and second round with cornerbacks Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean — rookies who have become key starters on the NFL’s top-rated defense.
With approximately $32 million in projected salary cap space in 2025, the Eagles should look to free up more money by moving a player with value they can dangle in a trade — backup quarterback Kenny Pickett — and drafting a quarterback in the later rounds of the 2025 NFL draft.
What Eagles Need in Backup QB for Hurts
Like any NFL team with an elite starter like Jalen Hurts, the rote way of thinking is to have a backup that’s essentially a rough facsimile of the starter — which Pickett essentially is for Hurts.
If the Eagles can find a team to take on Pickett as a backup quarterback — and the $2.6 million he’s due in 2025 of the 4-year, $14 million rookie contract he signed in 2022 —they can draft a replacement with one of their 3 fifth round picks in 2025, which would equal a savings of approximately $1.6 million.
In the 2024 draft, a record-tying 6 quarterbacks were taken in the first round but only 5 quarterbacks were taken in the ensuing 6 rounds with just a $200,000 fluctuation in salaries over those final 5 picks.
New Orleans Saints quarterback Spencer Rattler was the first of those 5 picks in the fifth round pick and signed a 4-year, $4.3 million contract. Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Michael Pratt was the last of the 5 picks, taken in the seventh round pick by the Green Bay Packers with a 4-year, $4.1 million contract.
Possible Candidates For Philly’s Next Backup QB
Because Pickett was a first round pick by the Steelers in 2022 and went 14-10 as a starter through 2 seasons before he was traded to the Eagles, it’s not a stretch to think there might be a team looking for a high-level backup or possible fill-in starter for a team nurturing a young quarterback who would bite on a trade — teams like the New York Giants or Las Vegas Raiders.
That being said, Pickett also has as many career touchdown passes as interceptions (13) and only completes 62.4 percent of his passes, so finding a replacement in the draft shouldn’t be that difficult.
One player to keep an eye on would be Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel, who is ranked No. 10 among quarterbacks by ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. on his “Draft Big Board” for 2025.
Gabriel has led No. 1 Oregon to a 12-0 record and is just the eighth quarterback in college football history to pass for over 15,000 career yards. Named the Big Ten Player of the Year on December 6, Gabriel will set the NCAA record for quarterbacks with his 62nd career start on December 7 against Penn State in the Big Ten Championship Game.
