Adrian Fedkiw
Melvin Gordon is trying to play hardball and the Los Angeles Chargers aren’t budging.
Gordon still has no new contract and is still not with the team.
Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated’s MMQB reported Wednesday that the Philadelphia Eagles made a trade offer for the fifth-year running back.
In the reported proposal, the Eagles would send Jordan Howard to the Chargers, the teams would swap mid-round picks and LA would eat some of Gordon’s salary.
Did a little digging around on the Melvin Gordon trade market. To give you an idea of where it is, only offer I came across was from Philly.
In that deal, Jordan Howard would go to LA, the teams would swap mid-round picks, and the Chargers would eat salary. LA obviously said no.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) September 4, 2019
Breer said there hasn’t been much action on Gordon.
There just hasn’t been much action on Gordon. And that’s not bc he can’t play. It’s bc there aren’t teams willing to fork over draft capital and the kind of $$$ Gordon wants.
You could deal for him as a 1-year rental. But (as the Philly offer shows) that lessens his trade value.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) September 4, 2019
If a trade for Gordon happens, don’t expect the Eagles to extend him. The Eagles just drafted Miles Sanders in the second round and also have Corey Clement. I believe Gordon will get between $10-12 million per season and as magical as Howie Roseman is with the salary cap, even I don’t think he can twist the numbers around enough to make it work.
So that leaves the compensatory pick plan. I don’t expect Roseman to go out of his way to trade for Gordon, with Carson Wentz and Fletcher Cox both $100 million players, draft picks are going to be imperative. He will wait it out and see if the market will come down.
Let’s say it’s a month into the season and Gordon is still holding out, all of a sudden that trade proposal that Breer mentioned above looks a little bit more appealing. And the closer we get to the trade deadline, the more leverage Roseman would possess.
Roseman is doing his due diligence as he always does. If a trade for Gordon happens, it may not be imminent, but Roseman gains more and more control as time goes by.
Gordon had never averaged above 4 ypc over his first three years in the NFL before gaining 5.1 yards per tote last year over 12 games. He’s at his best in the open field using his jump cutting ability, he likes to bounce runs to the outside and has come a long way as a pass catcher since his days at Wisconsin.
Speaking of the Badgers, Gordon followed a fellow Badger and Eagle on Instagram over the weekend. That was Clement.
Turns out there may have been something more to that than we all thought.