The NFL Draft will present the Philadelphia Eagles with a number of different scenarios to improve their team.
While much of the focus has been on whether or not the team will trade up inside the top-five picks in the draft to select a quarterback, one option that hasn't been examined nearly as closely is the possibility of trading down in the first round.
There are going to be a number of highly sought after players on the board when the Eagles are on the clock with the eighth pick, and the franchise may be able to take advantage of a team desperate to add a top-10 talent in area of need.
Teams may covet the opportunity to acquire a potential bookend offensive tackle in Ronnie Stanley, an elite running back talent in Ezekiel Elliott, or perhaps even the best remaining quarterback talent on the board in Paxton Lynch. If a team is in love with any of these prospects enough to consider them vital to both their short and long-term pictures, they may be willing to part with a significant package of draft picks to move up.
The Eagles are a team in a rebuilding mode, and they could certainly use an extra pick or two within the top three rounds of the draft, or even adding a future high draft pick next year. But the offer would need to be a substantial one in order for the Birds to sell the fanbase on the idea of passing on a top-10 talent and settling for the opportunity to draft a couple of lesser players instead.
The team's best opportunity to get better is probably to stand pat at the eighth pick and select the best available player. Opportunities to pick in the top-10 don't come around very often for this franchise, and the talent pool that they'll have to choose from will drop considerably if they go back to the middle of the first round, even if it meant acquiring an extra third or fourth round pick along the way.
The team's recent history of trading down in the first round hasn't been all that great either.
In 2007, the Eagles traded their first-round pick to the Dallas Cowboys in exchange for second, third, and fifth-round picks that became Kevin Kolb, Stewart Bradley, and C.J. Gaddis. Not one of those players went on to have a long or meaningful career in Philadelphia, and the Birds passed on the opportunity to pick guys like Ben Grubbs, Joe Staley, Greg Olsen, and Paul Posluszny.
In 2008, the franchise sent the 19th pick to Carolina for a 2009 first rounder, and second and fourth round picks in 2008 draft. While the team did flip the first-rounder into an answer at left tackle in Jason Peters, the two picks acquired for the 2008 draft were squandered. The two picks became Trevor Laws and Mike McGlynn.
Trading down is an option that sounds good in theory, but rarely produces the results the results that teams intend.
Denny Basens is a contributing writer for Eagledelphia. Follow him on Twitter @DennyBasens.
