With roster holes galore, Birds need a dynamite draft
With limited resources when free agency begins next week, the Eagles need to hit a home run in the April draft.
Considering the holes in the roster on both lines, the lack of talent in the back end of the defense, the dearth of proven starters at linebacker and an unproven quarterback in Jalen Hurts, six of their 10 draft picks must contribute to successfully kick off Year 1 of a rebuilding program under rookie head coach Nick Sirianni.
That is ... contribute, not just show up and collect paychecks.
The Eagles decided it was best to restructure several veteran contracts to help get under the $182.5 million salary cap and give Sirianni a base, rather than move on from a handful of over-30 veterans, as teams like the Kansas City Chiefs could afford to do with the releases of their starting offensive tackles, including former No. 1 overall pick Eric Fisher.
But back to the draft, which has gotten the best of the Eagles over the past five years, having produced just one Pro Bowl player in Carson Wentz, who played his way out of town.
The Eagles always talk about their draft decisions being collaborative, which for them means a lot of input framing
the needs and developing alternatives but no single party held accountable for bad outcomes.
Thus, that decision to trade two first-round picks, second and thirdround selections and a fourth-rounder to move up six spots to select Wentz in the 2016 lottery was the organization’s mistake, not anybody in particular.
Working from sourced information, responsible reports and flat-out common sense, we’ve credited or assigned blame to individuals who deserve it in the first round of the last five Eagles drafts.
Here are the first rounds of the past five drafts and whose decisions were responsible for such:
2016 » Carson Wentz, quarterback: Started as a rookie and played like the league MVP before shredding a knee in 2017.
Owner Jeff Lurie was all over this from the beginning. Then head coach Doug Pederson and offensive coordinator Frank Reich felt Wentz was a winner, too, although they knew he was anything but a finished product.
Eagles fans know the rest. Nick Foles was the Super Bowl LII MVP. When Wentz returned he was productive but playing nowhere near the MVP level he’d been before the knee injury. Wentz couldn’t make the players around him play better, although you could argue that Aaron Rodgers would be challenged by the Eagles’ talent.
Decision: Lurie, general manager Howie Roseman, head coach Pederson. 2017 » Derek Barnett, defensive end: Then vice president of player personnel Joe Douglas was Barnett’s biggest fan, scoffing at the pedestrian 4.88 40yard dash time and praising the excellent 3-cone drill time of 6.96 seconds.
Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz liked Barnett’s production at Tennessee, where he notched 33 sacks.
Barnett completed his fourth season with 19.5 career sacks and 19 accepted penalties. Is that worth exercising the fifthyear option of more than $10 million?
Decision: Douglas, Schwartz.
2018 » Dallas Goedert, tight end: He was a secondround selection, the Eagles trading back with the Ravens in a deal giving them Baltimore’s second-round pick in 2019, which became running back Miles Sanders. A pretty decent haul.
The Cowboys wanted Goedert, both for his namesake and as an upgrade at tight end but Roseman traded in front of them to get the big guy.
The Ravens used the 32nd pick to draft eventual league-MVP Lamar Jackson. In the third round they got offensive tackle Orlando Brown, an up and coming star the Eagles should have selected instead of Goedert.
Decision: Roseman. 2019 » Andre Dillard, offensive tackle: Dillard was a last-minute consideration, the Eagles hearing he was falling on draft boards.
They instructed offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland to do an emergency evaluation the weekend before the draft. Think Draft Day ... remember the movie scene where Cleveland GM Kevin Costner trades the Browns’ future for the first overall pick before evaluating the guy he was supposed to burn it on, mythical quarterback Bo Callahan?
Before Dillard tore a biceps at the 2020 training camp, he stood out on just two levels: He came in bigger and he almost injured Wentz, getting bullrushed into the quarterback during a live drill.
Decision: This one had Howie’s fingerprints all over it because Stoutland thinks he can turn any offensive lineman into a legit starter.
2020 » Jalen Reagor, wide receiver: Not a bust by any means, but not exactly a guy with the upside to envision with a bust in Canton.
Reagor showed bigplay ability playing receiver and running misdirection plays. He took a punt to the house. Unfortunately for the Eagles, the kid who was supposed to be the next DeSean Jackson turned into just that, spending a chunk of the season in the training room.
The Eagles’ draft room was split on Reagor, a segment pushing for Justin Jefferson, who made the Pro Bowl with the Vikings.
Decision: Ex-coach Doug Pederson, who learned that Reagor wasn’t nearly the route runner as portrayed.
2020(B) » Jalen Hurts, quarterback: It wasn’t a firstrounder but taking Hurts off the board in the second round changed the face of the franchise. Wentz wouldn’t deal with the competition, and in a pandemic setting used the extra ‘me time’ to isolate.
The move made sense from the perspective that Wentz hadn’t finished a season healthy since his rookie campaign.
Decision: Roseman, with the blessing of Lurie.