Philadelphia Eagles: Top trade-up targets in 2020 NFL Draft

With eight picks in the 2020 NFL Draft, the Philadelphia Eagles have plenty of trade capital to move up at least once. Who should they target in a potential move up?

The Philadelphia Eagles may not have made the splashiest moves in free agency this year, but their roster has certainly improved in the last week. Signing free-agent defensive tackle Javon Hargrave and trading for cornerback Darius Slay helped address two key positions of need this offseason.

Losing Malcolm Jenkins and Jason Peters is a bitter pill to swallow for some fans, but if general manager Howie Roseman is dedicated to making the team younger this offseason, it was the right call.

Opting to let several free agents from last year’s roster leave and sign a few, well-respected players from other teams, Roseman has indicated he values NFL production over college potential. He may have traded two mid-round picks in the 2020 NFL Draft to get Slay from the Detroit Lions. But if Roseman is unsure of any cornerback after the first round and liked Slay as the team’s lead cornerback, it makes sense to make the trade.

Now with eight picks in the 2020 NFL Draft, the Philadelphia Eagles still have plenty of ammunition on hand if they want to move up for certain players. While moves in the first round usually get all the media attention, trades up and down continue to happen even into the seventh round of the draft.

The Philadelphia Eagles have a history of trading picks in the first round, to sometimes varied results. In 2019, they traded up in the first round with the Baltimore Ravens to get left tackle Andre Dillard from Washington State.

In 2018, they traded down, content to get the Ravens second-round pick in 2018 and 2019 in exchange for the last pick in the first round. And of course, in 2016 they traded with the Cleveland Browns to move from eighth to second in the first round to draft quarterback Carson Wentz.

There are arguments for and against every first-round move they have made in recent years. The trade with the Ravens gave the Philadelphia Eagles running back Miles Sanders in 2019, but their original first-round pick in 2018 was used on quarterback Lamar Jackson.

Last year, the Ravens used the pick they got from the Philadelphia Eagles on wide receiver Marquise Brown. It is debatable whether the team would be better today if Jackson and Brown were playing in Philadelphia instead of Baltimore.

In any case, the last few years have shown Roseman is more than willing to move up in the first round to get talent the scouting department likes. With the 2020 NFL Draft less than a month away, Roseman and the rest of the Philadelphia Eagles front office are likely making cost-benefit analysis projections now, in the event they have an opportunity to move up and secure a player they think would be a good fit on the roster.

In this article, we’ll explore four different college players the Philadelphia Eagles could be willing to trade up for. We’ll discuss the team’s needs at the position, what qualities or traits each prospect has that would appeal to the teams scouting department and finally what kind of jump it would take to secure this position.

First up, we’ll explore the number one need for the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2020 NFL Draft. Which, after securing cornerback Slay as the top player in the secondary, the number one need is now firmly, irrefutably, the wide receiver position.