Howie Roseman is expected to keep Saquon Barkley off the market before Tuesday’s 4 p.m. trade deadline, unless an offer arrives that is too strong to ignore. The Eagles, now 2-7 after a 19-11 loss to the Giants on Sunday, are not believed to be moving their running back as the deadline closes in.
That matters because Roseman is approaching the cutoff with the kind of urgency that has made him one of the league’s busiest deadline operators, and Barkley is the most visible name on the roster tied to that decision. The front office is being described as open for business, and while Dallas Goedert might be traded and Riq Woolen probably might be traded, Barkley is the player who draws the sharpest line between a quick sell-off and a longer plan.
What makes Barkley harder to move is the price attached to the idea of dealing him now. Roseman would need what one report framed as an unforeseen, blow-his-socks-off offer to change course. Without that, the sense is that the Eagles would rather hold him than settle for less, even with the season sliding and seven losses in a row already on the board.
There is also a reason the Eagles may not view this as a simple in-season exit. Barkley is in his age 30 season, has been gutting through injuries, and has not come close to looking like the record-breaker who powered the Eagles to a Super Bowl in 2024. Even so, the team appears to believe he can still be a high-level performer and a significant piece of an anticipated 2027 turnaround, which helps explain why the debate is not only about this week but about what the roster should look like later.
That longer view sits uneasily beside what has happened on the field. The Eagles played their fourth different quarterback on Sunday, totaled 220 yards and averaged 3.3 yards per play. They had failed to reach 275 total yards six times in nine games, a level of production that has left the offense short on answers while the season keeps getting worse.
The rest of the roster picture points the same way. The offensive line will probably have four different starters next season, Lane Johnson abruptly retired three games in, Jalen Hurts developed blood clots that would end his season after Week 5, and DeVonta Smith and Dontayvion Wicks each missed a vital three-game stretch against all NFC East opponents. In that setting, the argument for getting Barkley healthy and moving him in the offseason is easy to make, even if it is not the one Roseman is expected to act on before the deadline.
For now, the most likely outcome is that Barkley stays put and the Eagles use Tuesday’s cutoff to sort through the rest of the roster instead. If Roseman does change his mind, it will take a trade offer that changes the math instantly; if not, Barkley remains part of the club’s next chapter, and the real decision shifts from Tuesday afternoon to the offseason.
