On Sunday, the Philadelphia Eagles went into Soldier Field and defeated the Chicago Bears 16-15 to advance in the NFL Playoffs.
http://gty.im/1090674436
Trailing 15-10 late in the fourth quarter, the Eagles called a play for a player who is very familiar to Detroit Lions‘ fans. That player is Golden Tate, who ended up catching the game-winning touchdown.
Tate, of course, was traded from the Lions to the Eagles for a third-round draft pick back in October. Lions general manager Bob Quinn referred to the trade as an offer he could not refuse.
“Trade deadline comes, you talk to other teams the previous weeks and really nothing happened until really the morning of the trade deadline. And Philadelphia called and they’re offer at 8 o’clock in the morning changed by 9:30 in the morning and I think we consummated the trade at 10:30 in the morning. So it’s one of those things where it was just an offer that we really couldn’t refuse for what the value was and for what we had left with the player, which was eight (nine) games.”
But what we did not know, until now, is that the Eagles were not the only team to offer up a third-round pick for Tate.
According to Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated, “as the Eagles heard it,” the New England Patriots also offered a third-round pick for the YAC King of the NFL, Golden Tate.
“Little things like Golden Tate being an Eagle in the first place. Back in October, the Lions were considering offers for their stud slot receiver, who was playing out the final year of his four-year deal. As the Eagles heard it, they and the Patriots had third-round draft picks on the table, and Detroit figured the Eagles’ pick would be higher. So off Tate went to Philly.”
Some fans were very upset that the Lions traded Golden Tate to the Eagles as they believe the Lions would have contended if they had him on the team for the full season. That, of course, is completely false and Bob Quinn (along with anyone who truly understands the talent on the Lions) knew that early on, which made dealing Tate for a third-round pick a no-brainer.
As far as trading with the Eagles instead of the Patriots, that also seemed like a no-brainer at the time as Quinn clearly believed the Eagles would have a higher third-round pick than the Patriots.
