Eagles share Patriots team-building strategy and acquire Ravens DT Timmy Jernigan

It was only a matter of time before teams caught on to how the New England Patriots have been building out the depth of their roster with high-level contributors. The Patriots have reached the NFL’s final four in each of the past six seasons, have reached the Super Bowl three times, and have won it twice. It would make sense for teams to emulate New England in an attempt to capture their own success- and the Philadelphia Eagles have had a front row seat to the Patriots action over the years.

So it should come as no surprise that the Eagles have made a move that would make Patriots head coach Bill Belichick proud:

The Eagles have shipped their third round pick (#74) to the Baltimore Ravens for DT Timmy Jernigan and Baltimore’s third round pick (#99).

This sort of trade should sound familiar to Patriots fans since New England acquired former Carolina Panthers EDGE Kony Ealy and a third round pick (#72) in exchange for a second round pick (#64). This structure of giving up a pick in exchange for a player and a lesser pick is a way to maintain a high volume of draft picks, while also adding a proven NFL veteran.

Teams often overvalue draft picks with the hopes of winning the lottery, but think of it this way: how much better are the odds of hitting a home run with a pick at #64 than at #72? There’s not much of a difference and the Patriots were able to add Ealy, who has led the Panthers pass rushers in snaps over the past two years.

The Eagles lost DT Bennie Logan in free agency to the Kansas City Chiefs partially because they have DT Fletcher Cox signed to a 6-year, $103 million contract; it is difficult to sign multiple defensive tackles to big contracts. Jernigan has one year left on his contract and was a proven starter for the Ravens.

Baltimore receives a boost of 25 draft slots, which is much more noticeable than the 8 slots the Panthers received for Ealy. The Ravens just signed DT Brandon Williams to a 5-year, $54 million contract and have invested third and fourth round picks at the position over the past two drafts with Carl Davis, Willie Henry, and Bronson Kaufusi.

The Ravens have been preparing for Jernigan to leave and opted to receive draft capital a year before his free agency period in the same way that the Patriots received picks for EDGE Chandler Jones and LB Jamie Collins.

Belichick has been making these types of trades for years. The first trade I could find since 2000 that mimicked this style was in March of 2005 when the Patriots gave up a third and a fifth round pick for CB Duane Starks and a fifth round pick. But that was the lone example I could find by the Patriots until much later.

Here are all the times the Patriots have made these trades:

You can see a sharp uptick in these types of trades in 2012, and you’ll notice that the Patriots stopping being on the giving end of proven veterans (although they moved on from Maroney and Moss at the right time).

You’ll also note that the Eagles have been on the giving end of three of these trades with the Patriots, parting with WR Greg Lewis, LB Tracy White, and DT Isaac Sopoaga (and it could be argued that the Eagles got the better of the Patriots on two of those three trades).

2017 is the first year the Patriots have given up more than a day three pick for veteran players, which could mark a sharp change in the Patriots strategy, and it should be noted that most of these trades took place in the middle of the season. We’ll see how these players contribute with a full offseason to learn the playbook.

And we’ll see if more and more teams start to value draft picks like the Patriots and Eagles- as lottery tickets, with proven players holding more value.