{"id":315493,"date":"2025-08-25T04:40:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T04:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/315493\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T04:40:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T04:40:16","slug":"sam-howell-trade-grades-eagles-get-qb2-for-week-1-if-tanner-mckee-misses-opener-vikings-upgrade-at-qb2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/315493\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Howell trade grades: Eagles get QB2 for Week 1 if Tanner McKee misses opener; Vikings upgrade at QB2"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Philadelphia Eagles<\/a> continue to be active on the trade market with the 53-man roster cutdown looming, making their second trade in as many Sundays. This time the Eagles added at quarterback<\/a>, as they acquired Sam Howell<\/a> form the Minnesota Vikings<\/a> in exchange for a 2026 fifth-round pick and a 2027 seventh-round pick. The Eagles also received a 2026 sixth-round pick from the Vikings in the deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Vikings moved on from Howell so they could sign Carson Wentz<\/a> to a contract, as Wentz will be the No. 2 quarterback behind J.J. McCarthy<\/a>. This made Howell expendable. The Eagles needed to add depth to their quarterback room after Tanner McKee’s<\/a> finger injury, which made them players to give up a Day 3 pick for Howell (and the Eagles had plenty of them to give away).\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a trade that made sense for both teams, who won the deal? Both teams fared well in this one, given what they were trying to accomplish.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eagles: A-<\/p>\n

The Eagles needed a No. 2 quarterback for Week 1 in the worst way. This doesn’t mean Tanner McKee isn’t the QB2, but he’s dealing with a finger injury that may keep him out for the season opener against the Dallas Cowboys<\/a> in 11 days. McKee isn’t expected to go on injured reserve, as he’s not getting surgery on the finger, but he’ll still need time to recover.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The QB3 options on the Eagles roster were not suitable to backup Jalen Hurts<\/a> based on this preseason. Sixth-round pick Kyle McCord<\/a> needs some time to develop and isn’t ready for a QB2 role, and Dorian Thompson-Robinson<\/a> didn’t even play the final preseason game<\/a>. Both players were likely to get cut by the Eagles, as they were hoping McCord would pass through waivers and land to the practice squad for further development.<\/p>\n

The Eagles still needed a QB3 regardless, so they took a flyer on Howell. They can develop him in a similar fashion to McKee, and Howell is on the last year of his rookie deal — giving the Eagles enough time to evaluate him. Howell, despite how things ended up in Minnesota, is a much better option than either Thompson-Robinson or McCord for the opener. Howell has also started 18 game sin this league, so experience is vital for that QB2 role if McKee is out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Eagles’ sixth-round pick among under-the-radar rookies who could be difference makers in 2025<\/p>\n

\n Chris Trapasso <\/p>\n

\"Eagles'<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

McKee isn’t going anywhere either. He’ll be the QB2 this year when he gets healthy. The Eagles quarterback room is Hurts, McKee, and Howell — who was worth moving back a round in the draft for. This is why the Eagles stockpile picks, so they can afford to fill some holes on the current roster.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vikings: B+<\/p>\n

In what is certainly a head-scratching move for the Vikings, they did upgrade at the backup quarterback position by moving on from Howell. The Vikings did bring in Carson Wentz for a visit on Saturday, only to sign him immediately after trading Howell to the Eagles — and moving up a round in the 2026 draft as a result (sixth to fifth). They also acquired a seventh-round pick in the 2027 draft, which may not amount to much even though it’s extra draft capital.<\/p>\n

The Vikings wanted to upgrade their QB2 after Howell’s disastrous performance in his last preseason game, in which he went 1 of 5 for 13 yards and an interception. Max Brosmer<\/a> looked promising in the preseason finale, but he is not ready to be the QB2 behind J.J. Mccarthy — who missed all of last season with the meniscus injury.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Adding Wentz gives the Vikings a veteran No. 2 quarterback with more-than-enough experience to back up McCarthy, even though Wentz has been on six teams over his last six seasons. He’s started game in the league and played at a high level at one point in his career, while also being a serviceable backup to Matthew Stafford<\/a> and Patrick Mahomes<\/a>. The Vikings appeared to have upgraded at the QB2, while finding a taker for Howell because the Eagles needed a quarterback.<\/p>\n

The Vikings traded a fifth-round pick in April for Howell, only to get a fifth-round pick back for 2026 by dealing him. The Howell experience at QB2 didn’t work, but it was a push. The Vikings just have to bank on Wentz being better than Howell this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Philadelphia Eagles continue to be active on the trade market with the 53-man roster cutdown looming, making…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1763,257,8693,7,1519,492,1180,32,3218,259,6,499,109,2336,1840],"class_list":{"0":"post-315493","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-carson-wentz","9":"tag-dallas-cowboys","10":"tag-dorian-thompson-robinson","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-j-j-mccarthy","13":"tag-jalen-hurts","14":"tag-kyle-mccord","15":"tag-matthew-stafford","16":"tag-max-brosmer","17":"tag-minnesota-vikings","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-patrick-mahomes","20":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","21":"tag-sam-howell","22":"tag-tanner-mckee"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115087568092915847","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}