Don’t be surprised if Birds move up
PHILADELPHIA » One of the popular draft trade charts, Drafttek.com, gives the six picks the Super Bowl champion Eagles have in the threeday NFL draft that begins Thursday a total value of 705 points.
Right now, the Eagles have no picks on the second day of the lottery where 68 prospects will come off the board.
By far it’s the fewest points of any team entering this draft. Kind of makes you wonder why the Eagles splurged on the new state of the art draft room they’re promoting on social media. Anyone need a multscreen high-def lease Friday?
“We’re not sitting here going hey, we’re sitting out on Friday,” football operations chief Howie Roseman said. “We’re going through our draft process and seeing scenarios and when we get to Friday, we get to Friday. But we’ve got a long way to go before we get to Friday.”
The glass half-full view is the Eagles have five picks on Saturday — two in the fourth round, and one in rounds 5 through 7.
“When you look at the Super Bowl,” said player personnel chief Joe Douglas, who sets the draft board, “there was 22 starters that were third-round picks or lower. And of those 22, 18 of them were fourthround picks or lower, including six that were undrafted free agents.”
Opponents and agents will be using the old, ‘there’s no opportunity on a Super Bowl champ’ when they pitch opportunities to undrafted free agents looking for work.
That leaves the Eagles and their new draft digs in a precarious place. Do they trade up from 32 if a player drops in front of them? If the Eagles dealt their entire draft — all six picks and 705 points — they would have just enough ammunition to move up to No. 26 overall, where the Atlanta Falcons are drafting.
If the Eagles trade players to move up, it’s hard to believe they’d get more than fourth-round value for anyone other than the regulars and quarterback Nick Foles.
If another team sees a player it likes drifting down the draft board, the Eagles would have an opportunity to package No. 32 for picks either in this draft or the next one. And not a lot of them. The 32nd selection is worth 590 points, the first pick of the second round 580 points. The firstround picks come with fifth-year options, which would make No. 32 more appealing because the fifth year is a bargain price if the player performs.
Just who would be available at 32 Thursday should be entertaining, assuming you’re still up at 10:30 on a work night. A running back such as Derrius Guice (LSU) or Ronald Jones II (USC)? A receiver such as Calvin Ridley (Alabama), Courtland Sutton (SMU) or Christian Kirk (Texas A & M)? Tight ends Mike Gesicki (Penn State) or Dallas Goedert (South Dakota State)?
If the Eagles don’t trade out of the first round, look for Douglas and Roseman to go outside of the box as they did last year. Derrick Barnett hade arguably the worst scouting combine workout of any defensive end last year. The Eagles selected him with the 14th overall pick.
Barnett made the Eagles look like geniuses as he was making big play after big play down the homestretch, including a strip sack when the Minnesota Vikings threatened to tie the score in the NFC title game and a recovery of a Tom Brady fumble late in Super Bowl LII.
What highly productive college player had a crappy combine this year? Offensive tackle Orlando Brown of Oklahoma can make that claim. He checked in at 6-7 1/2, 345 pounds, ran a 5.85 40-yard dash, had a 19 1/2 inch vertical and bench-pressed 225 pounds 14 times - stuff an overweight sports reporter can do.
Brown got the job done at Oklahoma. And it wasn’t a coincidence that quarterback Baker Mayfield, a likely top 10 pick in this draft, won the Heisman Trophy. With the end near for Jason Peters, the Eagles are going to need a tackle even with Hal Vaitai and Lane Johnson around.
The Eagles could be high-fiving after a selection of Brown. Then again, there wouldn’t be much to do in the gap between picks 32 Friday, and 130, Saturday, the next day they’d pick. The gap is the price you pay trading picks for players like Ronald Darby and Jay Ajayi.
“For our team, our fans, we thought we had to do whatever it took to have an opportunity to win each Sunday,” Roseman said. “We made these trades also with guys that weren’t necessarily here for just one year. But it doesn’t make it any easier, especially for Joe and his staff and all the time they’ve put in to sit there on Friday and potentially have a golf outing. That’s not great.”