Eagles reportedly nearly traded for Colin Kaepernick, wanted to draft Russell Wilson
The Philadelphia Eagles seem to be well situated with Michael Vick running Chip Kelly’s offense, but a report says they had their eye on a few other emerging quarterbacks prior to last season.
According to Pro Football Talk, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the Eagles were in talks with the San Francisco 49ers prior to the 2012 draft about acquiring Colin Kaepernick for a second-round pick. Obviously that trade never happened, because the Niners held onto Kaepernick and he became the team’s starter midway through the season. But why didn’t the trade happen? Schefter reported that Philly backed out of the trade because they believed they could draft Russell Wilson. They supposedly geared their entire draft around the current Seattle Seahawks QB.
Allow me to call B.S. on this report. I’m not saying that Schefter’s information is inaccurate, but it sounds like his info is coming from an Eagles exec who’s trying to make himself look smart.
If the Eagles really wanted Wilson so badly, why didn’t they draft him last year? Wilson wasn’t the first overall pick. He wasn’t a top-five pick. He went in the third round, No. 75 overall. The Eagles had plenty of opportunities to select him. They could have taken him at No. 12 where they selected Fletcher Cox; at No. 46 where they took Mychal Kendricks; or at No. 59, where they picked Vinny Curry. Obviously they didn’t covet Wilson that badly, otherwise they would have taken him.
Seriously, these kinds of reports piss me off so much. What’s the point of it? To tell us that the Eagles have an eye for talent but messed up both times? If they thought Kaepernick and Wilson were that good, they wouldn’t have thought twice about trading a second-round pick for Kaepernick, or using the No. 12 overall pick on Wilson.
Stop trying to cover your butts, Eagles execs, if that’s what the point of your report was. This report also does tell us something else we already knew — Philly wasn’t thrilled about moving forward with Vick as their starting QB, likely because of his injury history.
