Birds follow the script and fill need for speed
Evoking memories of their storied past, the Eagles secured a Clemson safety to spark them to a big day closing out the NFL draft.
Fourth-round pick K’Von Wallace not only hails from Clemson, where Pro Football Hall of Famer Brian Dawkins matriculated, he roomed with Brian Dawkins Jr. for 2 ½ years. Talk about a small world.
“I’m actually close friends with his son,” Wallace said on a teleconference call Saturday. “I knew (Dawkins Sr.) throughout the process. They’re like family to us.”
The addition of Wallace satisfied the player criteria general manager Howie Roseman said he threw at Doug Pederson after the Eagles were beaten by the Seattle Seahawks in the wild card round of the playoffs.
“Can he run, is he healthy and does he love to play?” Roseman said.
That theme ran through every layer of the draft.
The Eagles upgraded the jet speed they’d already gathered in first-round pick Jalen Reagor with a couple of explosive thirdday wide receivers, as well as a trade for Marquise Goodwin of San Francisco.
When the smoke settled, the Eagles had a receiver room full of sprinters. Add draft picks John Hightower of Boise State and Quez Watkins of Southern Mississippi to Reagor, Goodwin and DeSean Jackson and you’ve got a group of Carson Wentz targets a Twitter follower depicted with four jets barreling through the sky towing vapor trails.
Fifth-round pick Hightower, who clocked a 4.43 in the 40yard dash, was asked how he’s stack up against his future teammates.
“It would be a great race,” Hightower said. “Only time will tell with that.”
“You’re going to see a lot of
4.3 guys flying around,” Watkins added
The Eagles even added a Prince. Sixth-round pick Prince Tega Wanogho, born in Nigeria, played offensive tackle at Auburn on the other side from John Driscoll, the Birds’ fourthround pick.
Driscoll (6-5, 306) is learning to play center.
“Being able to snap the ball makes you just that much more valuable,” Driscoll said. “Any position they ask me to play, I’ll do it. Being able to snap at center is huge. I wanted to create the most value I could and show a team that I’m worthy of one of their draft picks.”
The Eagles also added linebacker Shaun Bradley of Temple and Rancocas Valley (N.J.) High School in the sixth round. His aggressiveness and will to get to the ball impressed vice president of player personnel Andy Weidl and the Philly defensive coaches.
Bradley (6-1, 205) anchored the Owls’ defense with 87 tackles last year, including eight for losses. He opened eyes with his four-core special teams ability and a nasty 4.51 in the 40 at the combine.
“What stuck out was the physicality, his tackling and his ability to play around the line of scrimmage,” Weidl said. “We thought he’d fit what we were doing.”
The Bradley household erupted when the Temple product was drafted. He wants to add to the memories he had with the Owls, most recently their upset of Maryland inside the Linc last year.
Bradley knew the Eagles were on the phone when he saw “Philadelphia” on his caller ID. Then he celebrated.
“I just cried,” Bradley said. “I had so many visions of what was going to happen. It was like a kid’s dream. You wait all year for this moment, and then it happens and then it’s just like, ‘man, I got here, what am I going to do with it? This can’t be it for me. I don’t want it just to be a story where I get drafted and that’s it. I’m ready to work.”
It was a good kind of long day at the home offices for Roseman, Weidl and Pederson. They took their lumps for drafting the best player left on the board in the second round, quarterback Jalen Hurts of Oklahoma. That, after ticking off critics by selecting Reagor because of the speed fit instead of higher-rated receivers available.
Day 3, at least on paper, could be one the Eagles look back on as the one that made their draft.
“I feel like it was a difference-making day for our team,” Roseman said.
Wallace was a good place to start, as the Eagles need help at safety. Wallace played in 59 games, the most for a Clemson football player. One look at his highlights and it’s clear he loves to thump like Dawkins. There were draft simulations with Wallace coming off the board in the first round. He has a shot to continue the legacy.
“We never really talked much football,” Wallace said. “We just talked about life, our spiritual selves because he’s a man of God, first.”
Hightower averaged 18.5 yards on 51 receptions with a team-leading eight touchdowns last season.
Watkins, who ran 4.36 in the 40, averaged 18.2 yards on 63 receptions with six TD’s last year.
The competition has just begun for DJack because the young fliers have no fear.
“As far as rankings and all that, I was never a guy that paid attention to that,” Hightower said. “I just need to get my foot in the door, prove what I can prove and from there, I’ve always been successful.”
The Eagles drafted defensive end Casey Toohill in the seventh round. He led Stanford with eight sacks last season and has room to grow.
The Eagles rounded up all that help from remote locations in a virtual draft that came off relatively seamlessly.
The work is ongoing for the Eagles. It’s a draft player personnel types and scouts will be talking about 40 years from now.
“It’s something that I think we’ll always look back on and remember that we did this with a different set of circumstances that were challenging,” Weidl said. “But we were able to do with both of our families – our Eagles families and our own families.”