Eagles pull off surprising trade for Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett

The Seahawks defensive end is being shipped across the country

The rich are about to get richer. The Super Bowl champion Eagles have pulled off a trade with Seattle that will send Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett to Philadelphia, CBS Sports NFL Insider Jason La Canfora has reported. 

According to ESPN.com, the Eagles will get Bennett and a seventh-round pick in the deal while the Seahawks will walk away with receiver Marcus Johnson and a 2018 fifth-round pick. 

The Seahawks had reportedly been shopping Bennett for almost a week before they found a taker for him on Wednesday. The trade probably didn't come as a huge surprise to Bennett, who said earlier this offseason that he didn't expect to be back with the team in 2018. 

"I probably won't be back next year," Bennett told The News Tribune. "Just seems like it's a young man's game. I can see them going younger, with younger players. That's part of the game."

Bennett, who started all 16 games for the Seahawks last season, had been in Seattle since 2013. The Bennett trade is likely the start of a dramatic defensive change in Seattle. There's a possibility that the Seahawks will go into 2018 without at least four former mainstays of the starting defense. Not only will they not have Bennett, but there's a chance that the team could choose to part ways with Richard Sherman, who has apparently been sending "good bye" text messages to teammates over the past 24 hours. 

There's also a chance that both Cliff Avril and Kam Chancellor won't be able to play next season due to injuries they suffered in 2017. 

As for Bennett, the Seahawks will be getting a receiver in Johnson, who's biggest claim to fame in 2017 might have been the fact that he was baptized in a swimming pool before the Eagles played the Panthers in Week 6. As a second-year player last season, Johnson caught five passes for 45 yards. 

Of course, the biggest winner of this trade is almost certainly the Eagles. For one, they now have a pass-rushing combo that will likely give opposing quarterbacks a nightmare in 2018 with Bennett, Fletcher Cox, Derek Barnett and Brandon Graham. 

The trade also means that the Eagles will be able to do whatever they want with Vinny Curry. The team had reportedly been hoping that Curry, who's scheduled to make $9 million in 2018, would be willing to take a pay cut, but that hadn't happened as of Wednesday. With Bennett now on the roster, the Eagles could look to release or trade Curry in a move that would free up $5 million in cap space heading into next season.