Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: The Philadelphia Eagles are looking to trade away a star player ahead of a contract year.

That is the current situation with the Eagles’ top pass rusher, Haason Reddick, who was reportedly given permission to seek a trade despite later revealing he never requested one. It was the same story a year ago for Eagles’ cornerback Darius Slay, who at the time was coming up on a contract year and was even given permission to seek a trade before being told he was going to be released.

Slay announced on X that he was going to be released before news broke that he had agreed to a two-year contract extension with the Eagles.

To make the situations look even more similar, Slay made it known via his Big Play Slay podcast that he never requested to be moved despite it appearing to be on the trade block. The now 32-year-old even used similar wording to what Reddick said, saying he understood it was “business.”

This raises the question of whether this is just “business?” Reddick is apparently happy in Philadelphia and isn’t looking for a move despite negotiations not going the way he may have expected.

Could Eagles’ general manager Howie Roseman be using that as leverage by threatening to trade him away before a potential re-signing?

After racking up 27 sacks in two seasons, Reddick has established himself as a top pass rusher, which means he’ll command a hefty payday from whichever team wants him. Yet, the Eagles are seemingly unwilling to pay him, or at least the value that Reddick could currently demand.

However, trading away your top edge rusher without currently having a known quantity in terms of his replacement while eating $20 million in dead cap space doesn’t make sense.

This makes it seem more likely that Roseman is using a similar playbook on Reddick to the one that he used to keep Slay last offseason.