February 28, 2019
According to Jason La Canfora of CBS, the Philadelphia Eagles are open to moving wide receiver Nelson Agholor. The report was something of a footnote within a longer story on what some of the head coaches and general managers around the league said in their interview sessions at the NFL Scouting Combine.
La Canfora's note on Agholor:
(A brief aside on other players available ahead of the league year. League sources said the Vikings are shopping corner Trae Waynes, the Bears are shopping running back Jordan Howard, the Chiefs are talking trade on Justin Houston and the Eagles are open to moving Nelson Agholor).
As we noted back in January in our stay or go series, Agholor is a logical trade piece:
Agholor is a very interesting player to watch this offseason. He is scheduled to play under a fifth-year option exercised by the team for $9,387,000. That's not cheap, and the team doesn't exactly have much in the way of cap space. If a trade offer came around for Agholor, for, oh, say, a third-round pick, then I think it would absolutely make sense for the Eagles to jump on that, and then try to sign Golden Tate to a reasonable long-term deal.
After a dreadful first two seasons in Philly, Agholor broke out in 2017, when he caught 62 passes for 768 yards and 8 TDs. However, he was unable to take his game to the next level in 2018, when he wasn't as productive, catching 64 passes for 736 yards and 4 TDs.
Doug Pederson heaped praise on Agholor at the Combine on Wednesday, and noted that his numbers were likely affected by the mid-season addition of Tate.
“Nelson, oh man, love this guy," Pederson said. "He’s the first one in and the last one out. He’s a hard worker. Spends time before and after practice. Can’t say enough good things about Nelson Agholor and what he’s brought to the table and what he will continue to bring. I think last year, you look at the amount of guys we had, and then we added Golden mid-season.
"I’m not going to stand up here and say it didn’t affect Nelson. I think it did. The question was asked earlier about getting everybody the ball. In this league, it’s a challenge. And yet Nelson didn’t complain. He came to work every single day. He put in the time, he put in the work. He was a huge part of what we did. I’m excited, I love working with him.”
I'm not one for baseless speculation (which is precisely what this is), but it's interesting to me that within the same paragraph in La Canfora's piece that claims the Eagles will listen to offers for Agholor, it also notes that "the Bears are shopping running back Jordan Howard." While I believe that Agholor is a somewhat more valuable player, Howard is far cheaper, as he is set to count for $2,062,006 on the Bears' cap in 2019. Both he and Agholor are in contract years.
The Bears drafted Howard when Joe Douglas was still their director of college scouting. Obviously, the Eagles badly need help at running back, and if the Bears think Agholor can play on the outside (they already have a few slot guys), it shouldn't take long for Agholor to pick up the Bears' offense, as Pederson and Bears head coach Matt Nagy are both branches on the Andy Reid coaching tree. Just sayin'...
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