Murphy: For Eagles and Vikings, 'no-brainer' means two different things

Oh, where to begin? Let's save the obvious stuff for a little later on. Landing a first-round pick in exchange for a lame-duck quarterback eight days before the first game of the season? If that was Howie Roseman's plan all along, all of us should stand in awe. If it wasn't, well, what does it matter at this point. The Eagles just completed a hail mary that radically reconfigures their outlook not just for this season — bet the under — but for the first few years of the Carson Wentz era. But you knew that. So let's start somewhere else, first:

WTF, Minnesota?

I'd like to say this never happens, but it has happened before: five years ago, Week Seven of the 2011 season. The Raiders were 4-2. Starter Jason Campbell was about to go on injured reserve with a broken collarbone. They traded a first rounder and a second rounder to the Bengals for Carson Palmer, who was threatening to retire rather than spend another season in Cincinnati. Five days later, he was in uniform and under center. New teammates, new division, new offense. The day will live in infamy. One of the worst quarterbacked NFL games of all time. Kyle Boller threw three interceptions in the first half, then started the third quarter with three straight incompletions.

Enter Palmer. In two quarters of work he threw three interceptions. In fairness, he also completed eight passes. This was in 21 attempts. The Raiders were shutout 28-0 by a Chiefs team led by Matt Cassel, who threw two interceptions of his own but managed a 38.3 QB rating that dwarfed Boller's (22.3) and Palmer's (17.3). All told, the game's three QBs went 30-for-65 for 338 yards, no touchdowns, and eight interceptions. Hey, it's a passing league.

After the bye week, Palmer threw three more interceptions and the Raiders lost again, this time to a Broncos team led by Tim Tebow. Hey, it's a passing league.

Oakland broke off a three-game winning streak in which Palmer went 52-for-80 with three touchdowns, two interceptions, and 764 yards passing. The Raiders were 7-4.

They won one more game. Over the last five games of the season, Palmer averaged 24-for-38 with 308 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions.

In 2012, the Raiders went 4-12. They traded Palmer to the Cardinals. He finished his Oakland career with 30 interceptions, 35 touchdowns, a 60.9 percent completion mark, and an 8-16 record in 24 starts.

The Bengals used the Raiders pick in 2012 to draft CB Dre Kirkpatrick at No. 17, then moved back in the first round via a trade with New England, drafting guard Kevin Zeitler at No. 27 and defensive tackle Brandon Thompson with the third rounder they acquired from the Pats. In 2013, they took RB Giovani Bernard at No. 37 overall with the second rounder they acquired from Oakland.

Kirkpatrick got off to a slow start in his NFL career, but he's been a fixture on one of the better defenses in the league for the last three years. In 2016, he started 15 games at cornerback for a Bengals pass defense that picked off 21 passes, allowed 18 touchdowns, and gave up an average of 5.8 net yards per attempt, the sixth best mark in the NFL. Bernard has emerged as one of the most dynamic passing-down backs in the game, rushing for 730 yards and a 4.7 YPC average lasts season while catching 49 balls for 472 yards, numbers that were in line with his production his first two seasons.

Good luck finding another team that attempted to integrate a new starting quarterback into its team this late in the game. It doesn't happen. Other than Palmer, that is. The Vikings themselves tried to do it with Josh Freeman several years back and learned the hard way how difficult it is.

Now, onto the obvious stuff. . .

This one was a no-brainer. The biggest winner in all of it is Cleveland, which now has a good chance to step onto the stage at next year's NFL Draft here in Philadelphia and use the Eagles pick at either No. 1 or No. 2 overall. Which one doesn't really matter to the Browns, because they have a good shot at owning both of those picks.

The Eagles, though, will actually get to pick in the first round, per reports from a slew of sources, among them 97.5 The Fanatic's Geoff Mosher. That essentially means they gave up a second rounder and moved back from a third rounder to a fourth rounder in order to move up from No. 8 to No. 2 to select Wentz.

Chances are, the move won't be without some collateral damage. Anybody who has watched Chase Daniel this training camp understands that the Eagles are in for some ugly offensive football for however long it takes Wentz to assume the reins. It will be interesting to hear the reaction from the Eagles' locker room. Guys like Jason Peters, Darren Sproles, even Connor Barwin…their windows of opportunity are closing quickly. Doug Pederson has been preaching all spring a belief that this team can compete. Now, with eight days before the season opener, the team trades away its starting quarterback, a guy who seems to have the faith of most of his teammates, a guy who played quite well in last week's preseason dress rehearsal, a guy who the Vikings apparently feel is a playoff-caliber quarterback.

If you think about it, the Eagles essentially elected to switch places with the Vikings. The Vikings said, "We'd rather try to go to the playoffs with Sam Bradford than take a mulligan." The Eagles said, "We'd rather take a mulligan than try to go to the playoffs with Sam Bradford."

Again, it was a no brainer, given the position the Eagles put themselves in with their draft day trade for Wentz. Still, their unorthodox personnel management approach continues.

Moving forward, all eyes turn to Wentz. Assuming he has recovered from his cracked ribs, he will be active on gameday. Pederson will be able to work him onto the field for a handful of series each week the same way Andy Reid did with Donovan McNabb. At that point, they will at least be fun to watch, though Wentz remains a work in progress. No doubt, he's a promising work in progress, which is more than a lot of teams can say about the quarterbacks they drafted this past April (Hello, Rams and Jets). He has all of the tools. The question remains, can he make them all work at the speed of the NFL game?

We're going to start the finding out process sooner rather than later.