Eagles rumors: Philly not planning to pursue a Le'Veon Bell trade

The Philadelphia Eagles are not the offensive powerhouse they were last year and acquiring Le'Veon Bell from the Pittsburgh Steelers may be what is missing. However, the team is rumored to have no intentions of making a deal.

The Philadelphia Eagles suffered a bit of a setback in their backfield with the loss of starting running back Jay Ajayi for the season with a torn ACL that occurred during Sunday's 23-21 loss to the Minnesota Vikings.

Despite this development along with the restructuring of Pro Bowl defensive tackle Fletcher Cox's contract, the Eagles are not expected to pursue Pittsburgh Steelers star running back Le'Veon Bell, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.

Eagles restructured contract of Pro-Bowl DT Fletcher Cox on Friday, creating $6.5 million more of cap space this season and $11.7 million more next season, sources tell @mortreport and me. But Eagles have not pursued a trade for Le’Veon Bell and have no plans to, per sources.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 8, 2018

Following the announcement of the injury, there had initially been a buzz that the Eagles could revisit talks to possibly bring aboard the All-Pro running back this season. Jason La Canfora had previously reported that the team was mulling over a trade for Bell. There has been consistent chatter around the Steelers that the team is listening to offers with the potential of him being moved prior to this year's trade deadline.

However, this silences that scenario for the time being with Philadelphia looking in another direction with their running back position that already has other injuries with Darren Sproles dealing with a nagging hamstring issue while Corey Clement is on the mend with quad problems.

This has put Wendell Smallwood in line to receive a significant workload if both Sproles and Clement are unable to give it a go for Sunday's game against the New York Giants. Smallwood has shown he can be an effective dual-threat option out of the backfield. He has gained 150 rushing yards on 25 attempts with a touchdown along with 10 catches for 96 receiving yards and a touchdown. This saw him put together an effective outing against the Vikings where he had 27 rushing yards on three attempts along with three receptions for 44 receiving yards along with a 13-yard touchdown reception.

The Eagles could also venture into the free agent market to add more depth at the position for the next couple of weeks as their crop of running backs gets more healthy.