Howie Roseman Pulls Off Another Player-for-player Trade, Nabs Safety From Arizona

For the second time this summer, Howie Roseman has made a player-for-player trade.

This time, the Eagles have acquired safety Rudy Ford from the Arizona Cardinals for defensive tackle Bruce Hector.

Ford, 24, was a sixth-round pick out of Auburn in 2017 and has played in 23 games (one start) in the last two years for the Cardinals. Hector, a 24-year-old undrafted rookie out of South Florida last year, played in eight games for the Eagles in 2018.

Like most of these player-for-player trades (which are rare for most teams, but not the Eagles), it seems like Ford and Hector will each have a better chance of cracking rosters with their new teams. Earlier this month, Roseman moved undrafted OL Ryan Bates to Buffalo for DE Eli Harold for similar reasons.

During his two years in the NFL, Ford (5-11, 205) has primarily been a special teamer. He played 65 percent of the Cardinals' special teams snaps in 2018 and just 5.5 percent of their defensive snaps. He didn't play on defense at all as a rookie and played just 62 defensive snaps in 2018. He has played 455 special teams snaps in two years.

Even after trading for Ford, it doesn't seem like he's anywhere near a sure thing to make the roster. First, training camp is already over and we're just two weeks from the start of the season. And the Eagles still have Malcolm Jenkins, Rodney McLeod, Andrew Sendejo and Johnathan Cyprien. And when the Eagles go to three safeties in practice, it's still Sendejo who stays on the field.

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We've talked about this for a while: the Eagles would basically recoup a compensatory pick if Sendejo isn't on the roster. But based on how much they've been using him all summer, that hasn't seemed likely.

In addition to those top four, the Eagles also still have Tre Sullivan, Deiondre' Hall and Trae Elston. Sullivan and Hall were each on the 53-man roster in 2018. So this move has provided the Eagles even more depth at the safety position.

The Eagles did move on from Blake Countess on Aug. 13, so perhaps they just traded for Ford to fill the requirement for Auburn safeties on the roster.

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