What’s it like for Robert Quinn to join an Eagles team with Super Bowl aspirations? Jay Ajayi knows firsthand.

When Jay Ajayi was traded on Halloween in 2017, the Eagles were 7-1, LeGarrette Blount was their lead running back, and reports out of Miami painted the former Dolphin as a malcontent.

As much as some outsiders wanted general manager Howie Roseman to address other positions, there was as much concern that Ajayi could disrupt the chemistry on a team with championship aspirations.

“There was a lot being said in the media about my departure from Miami,” Ajayi said during a recent interview. “I didn’t want Philadelphia to think that’s what was going on. I was focused on being a part of the puzzle and not being a distraction.

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“The Eagles were a one-loss team at the time and what would it have looked like if Jay Ajayi came to that team and all of sudden everything fell apart? It would have been insane.”

The Eagles didn’t splinter after Ajayi’s trade deadline arrival. In fact, they grew only stronger. But his integration process wouldn’t have been as seamless had Blount not been accommodating.

Five years later, the undefeated Eagles have similarly added a proficient piece to their machinery. While defensive end Robert Quinn arrives without the controversy that accompanied Ajayi, he joins a position group that is accomplished, and a team bound for the postseason.

The day after Wednesday’s trade, the 32-year-old said he was still in a state of shock. He had been traded twice before, but never in midseason. Quinn said his initial objectives were to learn the playbook and the names of his new teammates and coaches, and like Ajayi said, help rather than hinder.

“They’ve been rocking and rolling before I got here,” Quinn said. “... Don’t want to mess anything up. Just try to add whatever I can to help make this team better and stay out of the way.”

Roseman’s trading may not be over. He has until 4 p.m. Nov. 1 to make more moves. Running back, safety, and returner could be areas he’s looking to upgrade assuming the Eagles don’t suffer significant injuries Sunday against the Steelers.

He could also be a seller if potential partners are willing to meet his demands for left tackle Andre Dillard or another player deemed expendable. While the fourth-rounder he sent to the Bears for Quinn doesn’t qualify as “all-in,” Roseman’s acquisition follows a familiar pattern of aggression when he believes the Eagles are contenders.

He’s had his hits and relative misses. But of the latter, any mismatch has typically been one involving scheme rather than personality. The Eagles have a longstanding culture that has often embraced characters of all shades.

“I don’t know why it doesn’t work at other places,” center and team captain Jason Kelce said. “To be honest, when I see guys, except in very specific instances — Antonio Brown comes to mind — having an issue with the team he’s on, personally, I think less about the organization than I do about the player or the coach.

“And I’m not talking about contractual things. When it’s truly, ‘This guy is a cancer,’ well, is he really a cancer or is there something weird going on? There aren’t too many players that I know that wouldn’t fit in here.”

It starts with leadership, from ownership on down. But it’s the players who are often tasked with policing the locker room. Safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson, who was acquired from the Saints just before the season, is about as colorful as they come. But it didn’t take long to get him in lockstep because leaders in the defensive backs room, like Darius Slay, wouldn’t have had it any other way.

“Every year is different with the culture,” defensive end BrandonGraham said. “[Gardner-Johnson] came in and right away we made him feel welcome and didn’t make him feel isolated or anything, even people that were in competition. … You can hide on certain teams depending on what kind of leadership you got.

“I’ve seen some bad ones come in and it’s like, damn, I see the difference when you got certain guys they can run to that feel the same way.”

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Blount, according to Ajayi, diffused any potential strife when he invited his new teammate over to his house shortly after his arrival.

“LG — he’s a high-character guy,” Ajayi said. “He kept it very cordial. That first week we hung out. So it was very easy. And then my friendship with [fellow running back] Corey [Clement] blossomed, as well. He’s like my brother to this day.

“In a room like that when there’s so much talent, everyone wants to be on the field and compete. It was a friendly competition, but it was driving us to be better.”

Blount was averaging 12.5 carries in the first eight games. After Ajayi showed up, the number dropped to 9.1 a game and his yards per rush dropped from 4.7 to 4.1. For many running backs, they need touches to get into a rhythm, and while Blount said and did all the right things publicly, he was only human.

“He dealt with it, but, man, you guys don’t see the stuff we talk about,” said Graham, one of eight leftovers from that 2017 team. “We vent to each other, and if somebody ain’t telling that man the truth, he’s going to trip, and he might revolt back to who he is. That’s why I say it’s a good culture.

“I could remember on several occasions just me and him having deep conversations about life, kids, and our decision-making and it wasn’t necessarily a bad time during that time, but some stuff will stick with you, and the moments when you would make that decision to go the wrong way, it might have helped him [from] doing that, because it was tough.”

Ajayi, meanwhile, had to adjust, as well. He was averaging 19.7 carries a game before coming to Philly. But his impact was immediate even if the Eagles gave him only a bite-size taste of the playbook. In his first game, Ajayi ran eight times for 77 yards and a touchdown as the Eagles torched the Broncos.

It was the work done behind the scenes, though, that Ajayi said paid dividends on the field. Assistant coach Duce Staley set the tone in the running backs room, and veteran Darren Sproles, even though he was injured, made sure there was camaraderie.

But Ajayi said he felt the embrace from others outside his position, like Kelce and wide receiver Nelson Agholor. Offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland, for instance, had him get up in front of the room and tell his life story during an early run game meeting.

“It’s like the first day at a new school,” Ajayi said. “You’re trying to figure out how everybody moves and jells. For me, as the weeks moved on, people got to see me for who I am, the personality that I am.”

The perception of Ajayi as a potential problem soon faded. Kelce equated his situation to that of Slay, who had problems with a new Lions regime and was traded to the Eagles during the 2020 offseason.

“I don’t know what happened with Darius Slay in Detroit. I don’t know how anybody cannot like Darius Slay, quite frankly,” Kelce said. “He’s an awesome dude, great teammate, and he’s a captain now on our team. But clearly something went wrong in Detroit.”

Roseman hasn’t always gotten it right. In 2018, he dealt for Lions receiver Golden Tate hours ahead of the deadline. The Eagles would rebound after a slow start and make the playoffs, and even win in the first round when Tate caught the game-winner, but that moment stood in contrast to the majority of his time here.

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“It didn’t fit, but it wasn’t a cancerous situation,” Kelce said of the Tate trade. “He just wasn’t a good fit, and that’s going to happen sometimes. Thinking a guy can do one thing and then all of sudden it just doesn’t work out.”

Winning alone can extinguish a lot of possible fires. The 2017 Eagles had a few hiccups down the stretch, not to mention Carson Wentz’s season-ending knee injury, but the overall strength of the team, and having leaders who had won prior Super Bowls, helped offset losing the starting quarterback.

The run game was pivotal even before Wentz went down. And as great as backup quarterback Nick Foles was in Super Bowl LII, Blount and Ajayi broke off long gains on the ground that put the Eagles ahead in the first half. All told, the pair combined for 23 carries for 147 yards and a touchdown.

“If we don’t make the move to get Jay Ajayi, I don’t know if we win the Super Bowl that year,” Kelce said. “I think Jay was an integral part, not just as a player, but as a personality. He was a great guy in the locker room.

“And all those running backs had a great relationship.”

Like the running back position in 2017, defensive end was in need of depth after Derek Barnett went down with a knee injury in this season’s opener. The Eagles were also lacking in pressures and sacks, despite having several double-digit second-half leads that would seemingly make pass rushing easier.

Quinn, who has 102 career sacks and just last year led the NFC with 18½, had only one sack and three quarterback hits this season. But a new scheme and Chicago’s overall struggles may have factored into any regression.

Still, past success and playing in a familiar system to the one he thrived in last season doesn’t guarantee he’ll improve the rush. Quinn, self-described as a “quiet one,” still has to navigate new terrain with new co-workers.

Roseman alerted Graham and other team captains hours before the deal was finalized.

“I’m in a different place than I was, but I do understand,” Graham, said before the trade was officially announced. “I always go back to what I felt like, and I know a little bit of me would be like, ‘All right, man, I got to trust you on this ... that you ain’t trying to get me out of here.’ Because at the end of the day, you want to be the guy.

“But I’m in a place now where I know it’s only to help, and it could change you if you allow it to get in your mind, and you stop being who you are.”

A day later, when Quinn walked into the Eagles’ locker room at the NovaCare Complex, the 34-year-old Graham was the first player to greet him at his stall. Both defensive ends are at similar stages in their careers. Quinn is likely to cut into Graham’s playing time, as well as that of starters Haason Reddick and Josh Sweat.

“To have the OG of the team walk up to me, it makes you feel appreciated, trying to make you feel welcomed,” Quinn said. “I appreciated that he’s trying to help me through this transition as easily as possible.”

Slay didn’t necessarily have a welcoming party, partly because of the pandemic, when he arrived. But he said he’s strived to create an atmosphere in which the defensive backs work in unison and bond outside the facility.

“My first year in Philly it felt like there were a lot of cliques, and now there ain’t no real cliques,” Slay said, citing weekly Monday dinners as now mandatory for the position. “We got a big thing about coming into the group. It’s called, ‘Buying in.’ We all do things a certain way. We practice a certain way.

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“And if you don’t fit the standard, we address the situation before it even happens. If you’re on board we’re with it. If you’re not on board, just say it.”

Gardner-Johnson came in brash and confident. There was a feeling-out process and eventually, the fourth-year safety said, messaging from coaches and leaders to get in line. He did, per Slay.

It shouldn’t take long for Quinn, Ajayi opined, to follow in his conforming footsteps.

“He’s a vet, so he’s a guy that’s done it all and made a name for himself,” Ajayi said. “For him, it’s just about coming in and playing the role that [the] team needs him to play. I know it’s going to be, ‘Go get that quarterback.’ It’s not going to be hard for him to figure it out.

“And he has great guys in that room.”

Quinn, who has played on only one winning team in 12 seasons, has never won a playoff game (0-2). Ajayi, who retired in 2019 and lives in Miami, said he would love to return to Lincoln Financial Field and witness it in person.

“I need to go back to Philly and go and support those guys,” he said. “I want to be at a playoff game at the Linc with my Super Bowl ring on cheering those guys on to go get another one.”