When I was younger and totally broke, I often found myself struggling to make ends meet. I was earning income through eBay and selling anything I could afford to pawn off. Sometimes the decision was a difficult one: sell something of value for less money now, to secure that sale; or let it sit up on the market for a while hoping some day you might get full value for it. When you're desperate for something, maximizing value is less vital and it's about doing anything you can to survive. By leaving that extra money on the table, you are essentially buying short-term certainty with that money.
Howie Roseman and the Eagles find themselves in a similar position. No, they aren't broke monetarily, and are well-off financially. They do, however, find themselves in dire straits at the wide receiver position. Their franchise QB may have a shorter shelf life than most with his injury history, has played with underwhelming weapons at the position for 3 out of his 4 NFL seasons, and, frankly, after putting his body on the line multiple times already, the front office owes it to him to reward him with some new toys this Spring.
Draft picks are investments. You're investing capital... in this case, draft capital. And with any investment there is always risk assessment. The Eagles have put themselves into a position where they can't miss on a wide receiver selection in the draft. Think of them as one of those bomb squad guys on TV who cracks open the bomb with the countdown timer, and as the clock hits 10 seconds they need to cut the right wire or everyone is dead. If the Eagles pick the wrong receiver in this draft, it will set them back years. Their cap room going forward is going to be limited, so they won't be able to address it in free agency. They will need to start replacing other players soon like Jason Kelce, Brandon Graham, Rodney McLeod, possibly Derek Barnett. They can't afford to keep investing and missing on the wide receiver position every single year. It is vital they make these draft picks count.
This is why it is absolutely imperative the Eagles trade up in the draft for either CeeDee Lamb, Jerry Jeudy, or Henry Ruggs. Just like my situation with eBay that I mentioned earlier, the Eagles by trading up will be sacrificing a little value for short-term certainty. By trading up and using an extra draft pick to do it, they are essentially "buying certainty." It's an investment they need to make. Sure, anyone they select at 21(or later if they trade down) could wind up being better players than those three. But are you prepared to take that risk? And maybe a better question is: are you comfortable with this front office and scouting department, who have struggled mightily to evaluate the position, making that call? Lamb, Jeudy, and Ruggs have significantly low bust potential. They come from big-time programs with tremendous coaching. They play against excellent competition in their conferences. They have all the physical tools you'd want from a WR. They all are great route runners, they have good hands, they are instinctive, they all have speed(to varying degrees between them). Yes, it would be a blow to sacrifice a 2nd round pick to move up and buy that certainty, but when you're in as dire a position the Eagles are in, it's something they have to do.
Otherwise, you'll have a 27 year old QB with a significant injury history, scratching and clawing for every point yet again, wasting vital years of his prime, in an offensive league where they struggled on offense for the last two seasons, trying to compete with better and more explosive teams without the weapons to do it. Kansas City showed us in the Super Bowl it's an offensive league now. They beat one of the NFL's top defenses with great QB and receiver play. The NFL is a copycat league, and Howie Roseman needs to secure Wentz the weapons he needs now and worry about the long-term costs of that later. Their survival depends on it.
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