Howie Roseman addressed need with Jaelan Phillips trade, but why did the Eagles need an edge rusher in the first place?

On the surface, the Eagles’ trade for outside linebacker Jaelan Phillips addressed a need on the edge and affirmed general manager Howie Roseman’s emphasis on allocating resources to the defensive line.

“Our best teams — we’ve been fortunate to be in three Super Bowls over the last eight years — and they’ve been led by our front, and you can never have enough pass rush,” Roseman said Tuesday. “You can never have enough cover corners, and they’re hard to find. And so getting another player who can get pressure on the quarterback in key situations, you know those guys are always going to be paramount to our success.”

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Roseman included cornerbacks in his response because the Eagles also acquired Jaire Alexander and Michael Carter II ahead of the trade deadline. But prioritizing the defensive line — and in Phillips’ case, the edge rush — has long been a part of Roseman’s and his organization’s roster-building philosophy.

Until recently.

Phillips, who came over from the Dolphins, should help a unit that has underperformed, partly due to injury, but also because Roseman strayed from the blueprint. The two-year shift has been relatively subtle, but this last offseason saw the GM wave goodbye to two edge rushers while investing in a position he normally undervalued: inside linebacker.

Roseman watched Josh Sweat leave in free agency and traded away Bryce Huff, while he re-signed Zack Baun and drafted Jihaad Campbell in the first round. Those moves may end up being prescient — this season and beyond — even if Sweat and Huff are having good seasons elsewhere.

Baun is still playing at a high level after an All-Pro breakout 2024, and Campbell has produced at times, despite a recent demotion. But those decisions taken as a whole — not to mention several other minor ones at those spots — reflect a change that has taken place since Vic Fangio became defensive coordinator.

It wasn’t as prominent in his first year. Fangio’s evaluation that Baun was better suited to play off-ball linebacker than on the edge was defense-altering. And he was part of the scouting process that led to selecting cornerbacks Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean in the first two rounds of the draft.

But Huff not playing much last season, despite just signing a three-year, $51.1 million contract, and his eventual departure in June were Fangio’s doing more than anyone’s. And the reallocation of the salary cap and draft assets this year took his defense and positional preferences into account.

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As they should have. Roseman always considers scheme in building his rosters. But did he go too far with Fangio’s linebackers at the expense of edge rusher? Asked last week about his role in personnel decisions, Fangio said it was “minuscule.”

Roseman had a different take.

“I don’t know that there’s an adjective lower than ‘minuscule,’ so I think that that would certainly not be fair to say that his influence is minuscule,” Roseman said during a Zoom conference call with reporters just after the 4 p.m. deadline passed. “We talk a lot about a lot of things, but I’d say there’s a lot of trust.”

Fangio, at 67, has certainly earned Roseman’s trust. Last season, he coordinated one of the NFL’s best defenses, and confounded Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes in the Eagles’ Super Bowl LIX victory.

But that was with a different group of players. Sweat, who sacked Mahomes 2½ times in the title game, signed a four-year, $76.4 million contract with the Cardinals. Defensive tackle Milton Williams, who had two sacks of his own in the Super Bowl, inked a four-year, $104 million deal with the Patriots.

Free agent cornerback Darius Slay went to the Steelers for one year at $10 million. And safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson was traded to the Texans. (He has since been released and gone to two teams.)

Roseman couldn’t bring everyone back. He spoke about cap challenges coming off the Super Bowl and of having homegrown defensive players, like defensive tackles Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis, who would eventually be in line for extensions. (Roseman has not neglected the interior as much, and Carter could ultimately help the Eagles’ edge rushers more than anyone if he returns to form.)

But Sweat’s fully guaranteed number of $38 million isn’t much more than Baun’s $34 million, especially when positional worth is factored into the equation. This isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison, of course.

Baun’s importance in Fangio’s system can’t be overstated. But he still plays a position that can’t directly affect the quarterback as much as Sweat’s, even if Baun’s versatility allows him to rush the passer on occasion. (He has three sacks off blitzes this season.)

“Have we changed what we believe in? When you look at our inside linebackers, these guys can affect the passing game,” Roseman said. “They can affect the passing game rushing from depth. They can reset the front by coming up on the edge. They can play in space. They can cover people in space.”

That hasn’t solved the Eagles’ edge rusher issues. Nolan Smith and Jalyx Hunt were tabbed this season’s starters despite their inexperience. Both showed promise in their respective second and first seasons, but neither has been able to match Sweat’s production nor his impact rushing off the right side against left tackles.

Smith has been solid in setting the edge vs. the run, but he had zero sacks and just one quarterback hit in three games before reinjuring his triceps. The Eagles opened his 21-day practice window on Tuesday, and he could be active for Monday night’s game against the Packers.

Hunt has shown incremental improvement and leads the Eagles in pressure rate (17.8), according to Next Gen Stats, but it took him eight games to notch his first sack. Roseman made several cost-effective free-agent signings to fill out the rotation, but injuries (Azeez Ojulari and Ogbo Okoronkwo) and a retirement (Za’Darius Smith) have thinned the bench.

Joshua Uche remains. Patrick Johnson helped out before he was released on Tuesday — he’ll likely return to the practice squad. But the Eagles are getting reinforcements from Smith’s return and 37-year-old Brandon Graham coming out of retirement.

Phillips, though, is the most significant addition. Fangio influenced his acquisition, as well.

“Obviously, Vic was with him,” Roseman said of their one season together with the Dolphins. “So a lot of times when you’re talking to your coaches, and you have a vision of how the player is going to fit, you have to have those discussions.

“But that discussion was really easy with Coach Fangio — I think I just said, ‘That discussion was really easy with Coach Fangio.’ Wow.”

Phillips, a 2021 first-rounder, was already a force on the edge when Fangio arrived in Miami in 2023. But he had 6½ sacks in just eight games under his new coordinator before an Achilles tendon rupture ended his season. A season later, a torn ACL limited him to four games.

“The Achilles happened on a Black Friday game, I think two years ago, at MetLife Stadium,” Roseman said. “The ACL was, I think, a teammate kind of went into his leg. So, it wasn’t one of those noncontact injuries.”

Phillips has a solid 16.5 pressure rate this season but hasn’t gotten to the quarterback as much as he did pre-injuries. He has three sacks and seven hits. Those numbers would have him first among Eagles edge rushers in sacks and second behind Hunt in hits.

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The group collectively has just 4½ sacks and 18 hits. Sweat, by comparison, has seven sacks and 12 hits in Arizona. Huff has four sacks and six hits in San Francisco. If he gets to eight sacks, the fifth-rounder the 49ers sent to the Eagles in exchange for Huff becomes a fourth-rounder. Huff has missed the last two games with a hamstring injury, however.

The Eagles sent a third-rounder to the Dolphins for Phillips, but they’re on the hook for only $1.5 million of his remaining base salary. They also still have two third-rounders remaining among their eight overall picks for 2026. If Phillips walks in the offseason, he will factor into their draft pick compensation.

This was a move for the present, even if there are future considerations. The Eagles are trying to go back-to-back. Roseman’s nine trades since the start of training camp are aggressive even for him. But the deal for Phillips was also about the past.

One of Roseman’s greatest strengths has been his willingness to move on from mistakes. But rarely has he deviated from roster construction logic he learned from Andy Reid. He may self-correct next offseason, but will it be too late for the present?