In each of the Eagles final four losses of the 2015 season, they allowed 38 points or more. One of those games was against the Arizona Cardinals, a team that was just eliminated from the playoffs with a loss to the Panthers in the NFC Championship game.
The Cardinals had the fifth-ranked defense in the NFL this season and fifth-ranked pass defense. One reason for that is Pro Bowl cornerback Patrick Peterson.
Peterson, 25, has 17 career interceptions and has been a Pro Bowler in all five seasons of his career after going fifth overall in the 2011 NFL Draft.
But picture this, what if the Eagles had been on the clock with the fifth overall pick in 2011. It almost was a reality.
Joe Banner, the former Eagles president now with the Atlanta Falcons, was a guest on NFL Insiders on ESPN and revealed that if it had not been for the lockout leading up to the Draft in 2011, Peterson would have been an Eagle.
"When we were in Philadelphia, we traded Kevin Kolb to the Arizona Cardinals for Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and a second-round draft pick," Banner said. "The original trade was the fifth pick of the draft — which we were targeting Patrick Peterson for — and the second round pick the next year. Because there was a lockout, we weren’t allowed to make trades leading into the draft or else Patrick Peterson would have been a Philadelphia Eagle."
The audio is available here and the part about Peterson and the trade comes in at the 17:30 mark.
The Eagles instead acquired Rodgers-Cromartie, who was with the team for just two seasons, and turned the 2012 second-round pick from Arizona into a second-round pick, used to select Vinny Curry, and fourth-round pick, used to select Brandon Boykin, from Green Bay.
With the first-round pick in 2011, the Eagles drafted Danny Watkins. Obviously, three of those four players are no longer with the Eagles and Watkins is no longer in the NFL.
There's just another what might have been story for the Eagles, who are currently picking up the pieces from the Chip Kelly era and starting anew with Doug Pederson.
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Eagledelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.
