Eagles Status as Contender for 2027 Revealed by Insider

The Philadelphia Eagles sit at 2-5 on the season, now losing five straight games. A lot of this is because quarterback Jalen Hurts is injured, as well as other players on both sides of the football. 

Losing Hurts for the rest of the season is far from ideal for this organization, but it also gives Howie Roseman time to figure out what he wants to do over the next couple of years. 

Roseman is in a position to move on from multiple players, including guys under contract after this season.

The one thing he has to question is whether he believes he has an opportunity to compete after this season. With the expectation that the Eagles aren't going to do much of anything throughout the remainder of the year, guys who are in the final years of their contracts or veterans who don't necessarily fit this timeline can certainly be traded. 

However, guys like Zack Baun and Saquon Barkley have a strong case for sticking around for all the right reasons. 

Baun and Barkley are among the best players at their positions in the NFL, and if Philadelphia plans to compete next season, it wouldn't make sense to move on from either of them. 

According to the latest, that's part of what the Eagles have to figure out over the next couple of days.

“Both are among the NFL’s best at their positions. They’re captains and under contract beyond this season. In most circumstances, suggesting they could come up in trade talks would be foolish. But Barkley and Baun are in their age-29 seasons. They could help a contender this year, and if the Eagles ever get a chance to snag significant value for either player, it would be in the next two weeks rather than next year.

“The pushback to trading either of them would be that if the Eagles sell, it’s not to start a massive rebuild. They’re presumably trying to contend in 2027, and Barkley and Baun are in position to be key players on the 2027 roster,” Zach Berman wrote.

As crazy as it might sound to some, I could see a situation where it makes more sense to move on from Barkley than from Baun. 

Barkley has been dealing with injuries for a lot of his career, and they seem to be catching up to him a tad over the past year and a half now. As for Baun, there's a real argument that he's still an All-Pro-caliber player. 

That doesn't look like it's going to change anytime soon, though it's also important to recognize that teams will likely be willing to pay a premium for a player of his caliber.