Jaelan Phillips trades for Eagles, Dolphins

The 2025 NFL Trade Deadline is Tuesday and teams around the league are making some last-minute deals. No one was busier than Philadelphia Eagleswho made three trades in the past week.

First, The Eagles acquired Michael Carter II from the Jets. Then they added even more depth at fullback, trading for Jairus Alexander of Raven.

Philadelphia made another aggressive move on Monday, pick up Jaelan Phillips from Miami in exchange for a third-round pick.

The Eagles have needed help at Edge Rusher all season. They initially added Za’Darius Smith to help, but he surprisingly retired in mid-October. Philadelphia benefited from getting Brandon Graham out of retirement, but they clearly felt they needed even more juice to rush the passer.

Now Philadelphia has all the reinforcements they need to make a Super Bowl push the rest of the season.

Meanwhile, Miami appears to be open to dealing at the deadline after letting go of one of its top young defensemen.

But which team came out on top of this trade? Did it work for both teams, or did one take advantage of the other?

Below, we’ll assign grades to the Eagles and Dolphins following their big Jaelan Phillips trade on Monday.

The Eagles are making a calculated gamble by acquiring Jaelan Phillips

The Eagles are getting arguably the best player available on the trade market in Phillips.

Not only does he play the top position, but that’s Philadelphia’s biggest need on defense right now.

At worst, Phillips will give them some juice by rushing the passer for another playoff run in 2025. Then, if he stays in free agency, he could potentially land a future compensatory pick.

But it also has some advantages. It’s possible the Eagles could keep Phillips under a long-term deal. That’s assuming he stays healthy, plays well and is in Philly’s price range. If all that happens, this trade would look even better in just a year.

But it is not without risks.

Phillips has quite the injury history. He missed 13 games in 2024 with an ACL injury and had an Achilles tear in 2023. But that’s mostly in the past, as he played in all nine games this season.

All that said, the fact that Philly has some flexibility makes this trade easier to stomach.

Eagles only have five picks in the 2026 draft at this point, which is somewhat worrying.

After all, it’s hard to argue with an aggressive move like this when it means keeping the Super Bowl window open longer.

Grade: B+

Miami is officially in sell mode after shipping Jaelan Phillips (and that’s a good thing!)

One of the most important parts of this trade from Miami’s perspective is what it means for the future of the organization.

The Dolphins are clearly positioning themselves as sellers before the trade deadline. At this point, I’d be shocked if they don’t trade more players before Tuesday’s deadline.

One of the reasons this trade is surprising is that many believed Phillips wasn’t actually available. NFL insiders believed as recently as Thursday Matthew Judon was a more realistic trade candidate than Phillips.

Miami’s Week 9 loss seems embarrassing, and the loss of GM Chris Greerhe changed his mind.

If the Dolphins can pull off this trade without their general manager, then there’s no reason to think they can’t do it again.

As for this trade, I like getting guaranteed value back for Phillips. Miami could have easily let him walk in free agency this spring. If that happened, the Dolphins could be left with nothing, or the possibility of some value from the compensatory pick formula.

A third-round pick is pretty great value for Phillips, even if it is late in the round.

Looking at the bigger picture, I like to move some value in future seasons for the Dolphins.

It looks like a lot of changes are coming to Miami this offseason, including a new general manager and possibly a new head coach. Adding more ammo gives the next regime a better chance to turn things around.

In the end, the Dolphins got the exact asking price they wanted for Phillips. So in that respect it’s hard to argue with this trade at all.

I personally believe that keeping Phillips would be a mistake, so I applaud the Dolphins for making a smart move here.

Grade: A