Time for Birds to go deep in draft
In their most recent game, a first-round playoff loss to the Seattle Seahawks, the Eagles completed passes to exactly two wide receivers.
One was Greg Ward, who was an undrafted free agent. The other was Deontay Burnett, who was an undrafted free agent.
That was it. Two wide receivers caught passes in an elimination game. Neither was ever entrusted to try on a clumsy NFL ball cap on draft night.
Any hint, then, what the Eagles may be interested in adding to their roster when the NFL Draft begins Thursday, a talent-bazaar said to be thick with quality pass-catchers?
“That’s what we are trying to figure out,” Howie Roseman said last week, in a video press conference, likely his last before the draft. “We want to make sure that these guys are not just good testers, that they play fast in their pads, that we see it on tape and then we use it like a seesaw and make sure all that information is evening out as we go through our final grades.”
So that’s the way Roseman will sprint around the edge of that issue during those predictable hours where general managers are expected to vow only to draft the best athlete available. But if ever there was a season that revealed a need, and if ever there was a free-agent period where they would defer improving their offense until later, the Eagles just went through them. They won the NFC East because Ward was better than expected, because Carson Wentz was at his best during the pennant race, and because tight ends Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert gave strength to the passing attack.
Eventually, though, the weaknesses that kept players undrafted in the first place will be more deeply identified on scouting reports. Eventually, talented wide receivers will be necessary for Wentz’s complete development. Yet here’s a problem for the Eagles: They rarely draft wide receivers who bend franchise history.
Overall, the Eagles have drafted 59 “wide receivers.” From that haul, only Harold Carmichael would become a Hall of Famer, and the Eagles waited through six rounds before selecting him in a seventh. Mike Quick and DeSean Jackson were spectacular. The rest? Nothing special.
In earlier eras, pass catchers were identified only as ends. Tommy McDonald, who would become a Hall of Fame receiver, was drafted as a halfback. Backs catch more passes than ever. And the Eagles have had enormous success with pass-catching tight ends. So that “wide-receiver” draft analysis can trend shallow. Yet it does reveal a longstanding struggle for a franchise to identify modern-era college wide receivers destined to be great.
This year, with as many as seven wide receivers expected to be taken in the first round, the Eagles must successfully execute an endaround. They will pick No. 21 overall in the first round, meaning at least one of up to nine wide receivers whose names have surfaced as firstround possibilities in various mock drafts will be right there, waiting. And with eight overall selections, including six among the first 146 overall picks, the Eagles can expect multiple cracks at finding a wide receiver more talented than Mack Hollins, J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, Nelson Agholor or some of the others selected early and sold as special in recent years.
“It’s evident we do tape-study on players and you see sometimes the quality of defensive backs that players go up against,” said Andy Weidl, the Eagles’ vice president of player personnel. “But there are a lot of fast receivers in this draft.”
There were reasons the Eagles were so shorthanded at wide receiver late last season. The most obvious were that two that in which they had invested a combined $79 million, Jackson and Alshon Jeffrey, were injured, as was Agholor. And when Wentz was injured early in that playoff game, everything slowed, with the Eagles just trying to remain close enough to steal a victory.
But as they glide into what should be the prime of Wentz’s career, they need to give him the best chance to succeed. A good defense will contribute to that, and the Eagles did improve that since the Seattle game, adding Darius Slay, Javon Hargrave, Nickell Robey-Coleman and Will Parks to a reimagined mix. More and better pass catchers are mandatory, however, particularly with Jeffrey still injured, Jackson brittle and Agholor gone to the Raiders.
So if there are surprises by the end of the week, and they waste opportunities to benefit from an historically deep wide-receiver pool, the Eagles may never have Wentz properly fitted with championship-level talent.
“It’s an opportunity,” said Weidl of the draft. “The one thing I’ve learned in this business is things can change quick, and a position of strength can turn into a position of need based on injuries or other mitigating factors. You just want to get the best players that fit our team and our culture, as Howie stated, and that’s what we are going to do and that’s what we are going to execute.
“We stacked the board as such and we have done a really good job vetting these players. I think as we move forward with it, you’ll hopefully see players that we bring in here that people are going to be proud of both on the field and off the field.”
Save it.
Just save it already. This is not the year for that.
The wide receivers are there. Figure at least one or two of them to become legendary. Find one. Find two. Then find some more.