Even if there’s a way, is there a will?
The Eagles have the resources to make a splash in the first round of the NFL draft, a little less than two weeks away.
The only real question is whether they have the will.
Privately we’ve heard the Birds feel they’re a couple of solid drafts from making an extended run in the playoffs.
If their calculations are right, it would be tough to criticize trading down from the 14th pick in the first round because as we’ve said from the beginning, this draft is full of help at almost all of their positions of need — running back, wide receiver, cornerback and pass rusher. Giving up No. 14 to move back slightly and get an extra pick that might turn into another player would be a no-brainer.
However trading back in the first round wouldn’t necessarily play well with what will be a huge pro-Eagles crowd filling the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Clad in their team gear, they will take over the dais physically and vocally, the Eagles’ cheer drowning out the Commissioner Roger Goodell leading up to the big moment.
Fans like to know something about their first pick, just not too much. If they’d heard the stories about Ricky Williams’ visit to the Eagles headquarters before the 1999 draft, there’s no way they would have protested it. Even know-it-all radio guy Angelo Cataldi, who spearheaded the movement to boo the drafting of anyone other than Williams, wound up apologizing to Donovan McNabb, the actual pick who wound up having a stellar career. No one wants a repeat of the demonstration that didn’t do justice to the true passion of most Philly fans.
When you’re hosting the draft, you absolutely don’t want to have one of those deals where your first pick comes up, all eyes are on the commissioner and he blurts out a name no one knows much about beyond the team. That’s what happened last year when the Chicago Bears selected Leonard Floyd at No. 9. There was more crowd reaction at Chicago Auditorium Theatre for the first eight picks.
Let’s just say the Eagles have shown the will to make a splash in the past.
Eagles football operations executive Howie Roseman has prominently been a part of six Eagles drafts (we’re subtracting the 2015 exercise as Chip Kelly selected Nelson Agholor). Three times the Birds traded up in the first round, the targets Brandon Graham (2010), Fletcher Cox (2012) and Carson Wentz (2016). The three times the Birds stayed at their number or moved back they netted Danny Watkins (2011), Lane Johnson (2013) and Marcus Smith (2014).
It sure looks like good things come to the Eagles, at least in the more recent past, when they’re aggressive.
While the Eagles don’t have the ammunition to move all the way up the board for Myles Garrett, the top talent, you have to believe Roseman could find someone who values system misfits Mychal Kendricks and Vinny Curry. The Eagles, you may recall, got an inquiry about veteran safety Malcolm Jenkins, one of their top defensive players, who turns 30 in September.
Unfortunately for the Eagles the buzz about pure cover cornerback Marshon Lattimore sliding down the board is just that. We’re hearing he should be selected top-five despite those alleged concerns about his hamstrings and soft tissue injuries.
There isn’t another prospect in the draft even close to being the kind of shutdown corner Lattimore projects to in a division with Odell Beckham Jr. in New York, Dez Bryant in Dallas, and now Terrelle Pryor and tight end/ H-back Jordan Reed with Washington.
With so many moving parts and so much depth after the top seven or eight players, no one really knows how the first round of the draft will fall.
Teams that want a specific player, say a quarterback or a pass rusher, could wreck the best-kept draft boards, much like the NCAA Tournament brackets after a chunk of top seeds bit the dust.
If defensive lineman Jonathan Allen (Alabama) starts falling, you’d better believe it makes sense for the Eagles to move up assuming it doesn’t take all of their draft currency. The Eagles haven’t confirmed that defensive tackle Beau Allen has a torn pectoral. They’re also not denying it. Just the thought of Cox and Allen playing side-by-side is intimidating.
If Reuben Foster, the nasty middle linebacker out of Alabama, is still around in the top 10, yes, go get him (draft currency proviso applicable).
Ditto running back Christian McCaffrey (Stanford) and safety Malik Hooker (Ohio State), should they still be around near the bottom of the top 10.
We wouldn’t be so inclined to trade up for defensive end Taco Charlton (Michigan) although he’s a sleeper prospect, or receivers Michael Williams (Clemson) and Corey Davis (Western Michigan).
Sticking at No. 14 and choosing cornerback Marlon Humphrey (Alabama) or Tre’Daveous White (LSU) wouldn’t be the worst thing. Staying there and picking cornerback Gareon Conley (Ohio State) or Kevin King (Washington) would be a Bears move.
Hanging in at 14 and selecting Williams or Davis, who basically are just lessexperienced guys than the receivers the Birds already have, would be sexier than drafting a corner, just not by much.
The gutsiest move the Eagles could make if they stay at 14 would be to choose Dalvin Cook, the most talented running back in the lottery.
Cook has off-the-field issues the Eagles would have to accept. (Didn’t the organization just hire a player engagement guy with a degree in psychology?) He’s also had shoulder surgery.
Trading up for a top and safer talent obviously would be a bigger splash for the Eagles. And that’s been their M.O. in their best drafts with Roseman playing a leading role in the war room.