Eagles, Raiders agree to trade of young defensive pieces: Sources

The Eagles have agreed to trade defensive lineman Thomas Booker IV to the Raiders for cornerback Jakorian Bennett, according to a league source and sources from both teams. The trade is contingent on physicals for both players.

From the Eagles’ standpoint, the deal signals how their cornerback battle, between Kelee Ringo and Adoree’ Jackson, has stagnated. Ringo has been inconsistent; he’s surrendered deep completions and been flagged for pass interference with regularity throughout training camp. The Eagles know how narrow the margin of error is along the defensive perimeter; were it not for Darius Slay’s reliable play in the final minutes of last year’s NFC divisional round against the Los Angeles Rams, the Eagles might not have advanced to the NFC title game and gone on to win their second Super Bowl.

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It’s also worth noting general manager Howie Roseman’s lack of significant investments at cornerback after releasing Slay. In a cost-cutting offseason, the Eagles reached an affordable one-year deal with Jackson, who’d been relegated by the New York Giants to a reserve role in 2024, and spent a fifth-round pick on Mac McWilliams. Such moves signaled a belief in Ringo’s development. The cornerbacks’ collective performance — and McWilliams’ recent quad injury — created a sense of urgency, one that defensive coordinator Vic Fangio’s plan to travel Quinyon Mitchell with top receivers could not mask. Now, Ringo and Jackson must also fend off the 24-year-old Bennett, who started 11 games over the past two seasons for Las Vegas.

From the Raiders’ standpoint, Bennett had a rough rookie season in 2023 during which he battled multiple injuries and played poorly, but he rebounded as a starter last year. Still, he couldn’t stay healthy. He suffered a torn labrum and had to undergo season-ending surgery after 10 games.

The cornerback was ready to go by the time OTAs rolled around, but he quickly fell behind in the team’s ongoing cornerback competition. Eric Stokes and Darien Porter handled the majority of the first-team reps while Bennett was entrenched with the backups. Then, during training camp, Bennett was also surpassed by Decamerion Richardson.

“It’s nothing that I haven’t been through before, you know?” Bennett said last week. “I always had to get out the mud, you know. And, man, that’s nothing I shy away from. That’s who I am. I like to persevere. I like to be resilient, and that’s when I see the best JB, when I’m just focused on me, focused on just being present and just controlling what I can control at the end of the day.”

Stokes, Porter and Richardson all have something that Bennett can’t match: size. They fit coach Pete Carroll’s archetype for cornerbacks — tall, long and fast. Although Bennett is plenty fast and was practicing well, he’s only 5-foot-11. Once it became clear that Bennett likely wasn’t going to be in the rotation (barring an injury to one of the other corners), the Raiders decided to move on.

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Booker, 25, gives them another body to potentially replace Christian Wilkins. The Raiders released Wilkins last month without having much on the roster in terms of proven contributors on the interior defensive line. Booker is a bet on potential; the 6-foot-3, 301-pounder was a fifth-round pick of the Texans in 2022, but Houston released him after just one season. The Eagles signed Booker to the practice squad before the 2023 season, and he earned a roster spot last year, appearing in all 17 games and finishing with 18 tackles and one sack on a crowded D-line.

Booker was poised to climb up from the bottom of the defensive line depth chart in Philadelphia. He was regularly getting second-team reps during training camp, along with Byron Young and Gabe Hall, and had a noteworthy practice on Monday in which he deflected a pass at the line of scrimmage.

“I try to focus on every year individually,” Booker told reporters afterward. “So, I know that I have to earn things year over year, and that’s the wonderful thing about the league. It’s a tough thing about the league… Football is very much a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately type sport, so I treat it like that. Definitely made some strides last year, but there’s more things for me to do.”

(Photo of Jakorian Bennett: Steve Marcus / Getty Images)

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