A fakeout tease by D’Andre Swift sparked the Eagles interest in him

The Philadelphia Eagles are an easy landing spot for D’Andre Swift, but their interest in trading for him goes back awhile.

When the Detroit Lions declared to the rest of the league that D’Andre Swift was going to be traded by drafting Jahmyr Gibbs, the Philadelphia Eagles were an easily noted potential landing spot. Of course a deal indeed got done on Day 3 of the just-completed draft, sending Swift to the Eagles for a future fourth-round pick with a swap of 2023 seventh-round picks.

A segment of Lions fans surely fear Swift will stay healthy and realize his full potential in Philadelphia, and wherever he might go from there if he’s not brought back there in 2024. Mark this as a spot where that fear is considered unfounded, and willl ultimately be unrealized.

Swift carried high hopes for a breakout into last season. In the season opener, he set a career-high with 144 rushing yards (on 15 carries, with a touchdown) while adding three catches for 31 yards. He also suffered a sprained ankle in that game, eventually added a shoulder injury to the mix, missed three games and rushed for just 398 yards the rest of the season.

Eagles interest in D’Andre Swift started with that fake tease of a breakout

Swift’s three seasons as a Lion were quite simply a tease of what he could do, surrounded by being consistently banged up. Turns out, the Eagles were sold by the promise of that performance against them in Week 1 last season.

Via Pro Football Talk, Eagles general manager Howie Roseman told reporters how that showing from Swift sparked interest in trading for him.

"It really started Week One when we played them,” Roseman told reporters on Saturday. “You saw the explosiveness when we played them. He had a heck of a game. Every time he touched the ball you knew there was a chance he could take it the distance.”"

Swift is a Philadelphia native, so there was some familiarity there for the Eagles. Roseman said Senior Advisor to the General Manager/Chief Security Officer Dom DiSandro “has known him [Swift] and his family for a long time,” and that the Eagles “knew him really throughout high school.”

"He had been in the facility as a high schooler, so I had met him when he was in high school,” Roseman said. “It’s kind of a cool story of a local kid comes home and obviously a talented local kid.”"

All in all, as Lions general manager Brad Holmes said, the trade comes of as a win for the Lions, the Eagles and Swift. Doing business with the Eagles and Roseman is a risky proposition in terms of possibly getting fleeced. But it appears they were initially sold by a tease of potential that Swift is ill-equipped to ever fully deliver.