Jalen Carter trade talk is a year too early

Jalen Carter trade rumors have become the white noise of this Eagles offseason. Albert Breer says they’re hesitant to pay him, Jeremy Fowler says teams are calling, and 94WIP has spent days talking about it.

Here’s my read: it’s not happening. Not this offseason, anyway.

Next year? Ask me again. But right now the math doesn’t work, and it takes about thirty seconds of thinking past the headline to see why.

Howie already had his shot to move Jalen Carter

Start with the Myles Garrett thing, because it’s the cleanest tell we’ve got.

Howie Roseman has wanted Myles Garrett for years. He chased him last offseason. He chased him at the deadline. Charles Robinson said Howie was ready to fork over three first-round picks. This was a years-long itch, not a whim.

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So when Garrett shook loose again this spring, the Eagles were circling. Ryan Fowler called the interest “more than exploratory.” And per every report that matters, there was zero chance Jalen Carter was in the package. Cleveland.com said flat-out the Eagles wouldn’t include him. Howie would rather dangle Nolan Smith, Jalyx Hunt and picks, and when that didn’t get it done, he watched Garrett go to the Rams instead.

The Eagles had a live shot at the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, a guy who just set the single-season sack record with 23, the literal white whale their GM has been hunting for two years. And they would not move Jalen Carter to land him.

If you’re actually trying to trade a player, that’s the deal you do. They didn’t do it.

Trading Jalen Carter for picks would be waving the white flag on 2026

The Eagles already made their big subtraction this offseason. They shipped AJ Brown to New England for a 2028 first-round pick and a fifth. Fine, Brown wanted out, DeVonta’s the alpha now, you bank the capital. But that’s the move. That’s the chip you already cashed.

If you then turn around and trade Jalen Carter for another pile of picks and it’s a pretty clear signal that they’re punting on this year. You’d be telling the locker room you sold off two of your best players in one offseason and the return doesn’t show up until 2028 at the absolute earliest.

This is not a rebuilding team. This is a team that won the whole thing two years ago, got bounced in the wild-card round by the 49ers this past January, and is clawing to get back, in a conference where the Rams just bought Myles Garrett and the Seahawks are walking around with fresh rings. You don’t punt a season like that by trading a 25-year-old All-Pro for picks that mature when half the roster is already gone.

So if Jalen Carter moves this year, it’s not for picks. It’s for a player. Which is where it gets fun.

The Maxx Crosby trap

Right on cue, the internet has the answer ready: Maxx Crosby. The Raiders cracked the door this offseason after that Ravens trade collapsed, Hondo Carpenter says the Eagles are “nuclear hot” on him, and FanSided already drew up the exact framework, Jalen Carter and picks to Vegas for Crosby.

And on paper, I get it. Crosby’s a player, not a promise. He’d help in September. That’s the only flavor of Carter trade that fits a team trying to win now.

But walk it all the way through.

If the Eagles are willing to trade Jalen Carter for a 28-year-old edge rusher coming off knee surgery, then why in God’s name didn’t they trade him for Myles Garrett — the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, fresh off a record 23-sack season, a flat-out better player than Crosby and the exact guy Howie’s been chasing for two years?

There’s no universe where the Crosby deal makes sense and the Garrett deal didn’t. Pulling the Crosby trigger now would be Howie walking to a podium and admitting he fumbled the Garrett bag, that he had the superior player available, balked at the Jalen Carter price, and then paid something close to it weeks later for a lesser version. Front offices don’t torch their own decision-making in public like that. This one especially.

Next offseason is the real conversation

None of this means Carter’s untouchable forever. It means the timing’s wrong.

Because if you want to build the case for eventually moving him, the bones are already there. Carter’s sack numbers have dropped every single season: six as a rookie, 4.5 in year two, 3.0 last year. He’s never had a double-digit sack season. And 2025 was a medical chart in cleats — procedures on both shoulders, a hip that ended his regular season early. He played maybe 12 games, and that’s being generous about the Week 1 ejection where he got tossed six seconds in for spitting on Dak Prescott.

Pair that with an extension demand that’s going to brush $35 million a year after Jeffery Simmons reset the market, and you can see next year’s argument taking shape: pay top-of-the-position money for a guy whose box score keeps shrinking and whose body keeps barking?

And here’s what makes waiting the smart play instead of the timid one: that fifth-year option the Eagles already picked up doesn’t chain Jalen Carter to Philadelphia, it makes him easier to move. A young star on one fully guaranteed year is exactly what contenders line up for. They know the cost, they get the control, and the team holding him sets the price.

The league runs this play all the time. The Jaguars picked up Jalen Ramsey’s option and flipped him to the Rams for a stack of first-rounders. The 49ers did it with DeForest Buckner — a defensive tackle, same as Carter — and turned him into a first-round pick from the Colts. The Broncos did the same with Bradley Chubb. So if the Eagles get to next spring and decide $35 million a year isn’t worth it, they don’t give Carter away. They sell high, on Howie’s terms, the way he’s always preferred.

That’s a real debate. It’s just next year’s debate, once the extension talks play out, the Brown picks start landing, and the Eagles get a cleaner read on exactly what they’re cutting the check for.

For now, the smart money says they bite the bullet, carve out some team-friendly flexibility like Breer hinted at, and run it back.

The trade talk is loud. It’s also a year early.