The Eagles’ decision to give up a third-round draft pick for wide receiver Golden Tate has been highly scrutinized over the past few weeks, and understandably so.
Tate could very well be a “rental,” as he’s set to hit free agency in the spring, so giving up a third-rounder for a skill-position player that caught 30 passes for 278 yards (one touchdown) doesn’t really look like a good move, on paper. He did haul in the game-winning touchdown grab in the team’s Wild Card win over the Bears, but was held to just two catches for 18 yards in the loss to the Saints one week later.
Still, Eagles executive vide president of football operations Howie Roseman is defending the move, which he did during a press conference on Tuesday.
“No question. When we made the trade, we were 4-4. We were looking for a spark,” Roseman said, via Josh Alper of NBC Sports. “We were looking for more firepower on offense. When you talk about Golden, here is a guy who has incredible character, incredible production, can really fit any scheme. Everyone in this building was incredibly excited about adding him to our football team. We knew the price to pay. … We look back at our process, and I feel very good about our process. We’re going to be aggressive, and when we are swinging and we’re going to be aggressive, we feel like we’re going to be right a lot more than wrong. In this case, feel very good about that. And you saw the contributions that he made in a big game. The stage isn’t too big for Golden Tate.”
Hindsight is 20/20, but the trade really didn’t appear to work out in the Eagles’ favor, no matter what Roseman says. Darren Sproles and Nick Foles provided the spark that got the team into the playoffs — not Tate.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
