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Howie Roseman is going into the NFL Draft with an open mindset.

(Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports)

PHILADELPHIA -- The Eagles are in unfamiliar territory as next Thursday's NFL Draft approaches.

General manager Howie Roseman covets having draft picks and the six the Eagles have in their possession right now represents the fewest since having six in 2003.

By comparison, the Eagles wound up making eight picks last year, nine in 2012, 11 in 2011 and 13 in 2010.

If Roseman and company hope to stockpile picks for the mid-to-later rounds as they have in the past, trading back in the first round is always an option.

But if a top-tier prospect, such as wide receiver Mike Evans or linebacker Anthony Barr, slip in the first round, the Eagles could try to trade up. That, however, would likely involve trading draft picks this year or in future years, as well as possibly moving a veteran who may not have as much value as he did in the past. A few examples are defensive lineman Vinny Curry, linebacker Brandon Graham or running back Bryce Brown.

Would Roseman be comfortable trading a player for a draft pick?

“Everything’s for sale, if it’s the right price," Roseman said. "If anyone wants to buy my house for the right price, I’ll sell it right now. We’re not out there openly shopping guys ... but at the end of the day, if you’re talking about established players, you better get the right value for them."

With holes on offense and defense, and an overall deep draft class, this would be a good year for the Eagles to accumulate as many picks as possible.

However, given the team's recent commitment to drafting the best player available, finding quality rather than quantity appears to be the organization's top priority.

“I’d like to have 15 (picks), but we’ve got to get the right guys, and I think that’s the most important thing,” Roseman said. “And then you factor in some of the pre-existing guys here and some of the guys we brought into free agency, and I think if we found a guy that we thought could be a long-term, high-level starter and he was the highest guy on our board, whatever round that was, I’d still think we’d be aggressive about that, even though there would be a knot in my stomach.”

Filling all of those needs isn't a reasonable expectation with just six draft picks. No matter if the Eagles add or subtract picks during draft weekend, chances are the roster will be far from a finished product even leading up to the season opener.

“When you look at the Super Bowl champions over the last couple years and you break down their team, you probably could pick some weaknesses that they have,” Roseman said, “and so as much as we don’t want that to be and we’d like to have 22 perfect players at each position, we understand that it’s a work in progress.

“The roster’s always going to be like that, and we have to be comfortable that we may have to go into August or September with a spot that we’re continuing to look for. I think that’s a great challenge for us and our personnel staff to say, ‘We’re going to look at the wire, we’re going to look at guys who were cut, but we have to stick to our board,’ because the draft is a long-term decision for us.

“So we don’t know where we’re going to be two or three years from now, and so it doesn’t affect the way we stack our board, and for us, quality is going to trump quantity. Obviously, you’d always like to have more picks, but it is what it is at this point.”

The past couple drafts have been very fruitful for the Eagles, who came away with eight players who contributed immediately.

Lane Johnson, Zach Ertz, Bennie Logan, Earl Wolff, Fletcher Cox, Mychal Kendricks, Nick Foles and Brandon Boykin all either start or have seen significant playing time for the Eagles after being drafted in the past two years.

Building through the draft for the long term seems to be the mindset of this team with Roseman and Kelly at the helm. Whether the team makes six or 16 picks, the goal appears to remain the same: finding starters and not forcing the issue by drafting for a current need.

Follow Matt Lombardo on Twitter: @MattLombardo975

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