NFC East Notes: Cowboys, Eagles, Giants

Cowboys

• Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Thursday night that the Cowboys would consider trading up to early in the second round if there is a player there they like, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be a receiver. (Brandon George)
• Jones asked about a potential trade for Seahawks S Earl Thomas and offered an interesting response: “I’m not going to get into that. That’s part of the deal. I mean not deal, but … we have no deal. It’d be a mess up to go off that, I’ll tell you.” (Star-Telegram)
• Following the news that Jason Witten is planning to retire, Cowboys executive VP Stephen Jones said:  “We feel really good about our tight ends. With what we have on our roster with Swaim, Jarwin and Rico, we got some really good football players. We don’t think we’re going into a season without a good tight end.” (105.3 The Fan)

Eagles

Even though the Eagles could use more draft picks to work with this year, they opted to trade out of round one for a second (52) and a fourth (130) and a 2019 second-rounder.

Eagles executive VP Howie Roseman explained that they felt the long-term value of getting the future second-round pick was just too much to pass up.

“Our balance was the short term vs. the long term on the trade offers,” Roseman said, via Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer. “And we decided that it’s just too hard to get a second-round pick. When we look at the draft, the difference in value when you’re picking in the second round vs. even when you’re picking in the third round.

“It’s too good. It gives you a lot of flexibility. . . . We had a group of guys at 32 that we would have been really excited about picking. Will they be there at 52? I don’t know. But that helped us make the trade because we felt like there was a cluster of guys grouped together for us.”

Giants

Giants GM Dave Gettleman told reporters Thursday night that RB Saquon Barkley was “touched by the hand of God.”

“He was touched by the hand of God, frankly,” Gettleman said, per the New York Daily News. “I haven’t seen a guy like this in a long time, and I’ve been running around doing this for 30-plus years. He is the unanimous best player in the draft.“