November 21, 2015
Jay LaPrete/AP
Ohio State OT Taylor Decker is among my favorite possibilities for the Eagles in the first round of the 2016 NFL Draft.
As long as you're taking in some college football games today, here are some players who could make some sense for the Eagles in the 2016 NFL Draft.
For each quarterback we profile, we're going to do an extensive look worthy of its own post. That's what we did for Paxton Lynch here on Friday. In case you missed any of the other quarterbacks we've profiled, you can catch up with them all below:
• Michigan State's Connor Cook
• Ohio State's Cardale Jones
• USC's Cody Kessler
• Cal's Jared Goff
• Cincinnati's Gunner Kiel
• Mississippi State's Dak Prescott
• Memphis' Paxton Lynch
Spoiler on Lynch: (In Jim Carrey Dumb and Dumber voice) ... I like him a lot.
Decker is really good. In the run game he moves people, and in the passing game, he does a great keeping himself in between the pass rusher and his quarterback. Here's his game earlier this season against Virginia Tech. He was dominant.
Decker played RT for Ohio State as a sophomore and moved to LT last season. With Jason Peters' career winding down, Decker could follow in the footsteps of Lane Johnson, who played both RT and LT at Oklahoma.
"Lane was a guy we always felt, because I think one of the things with Lane is he had experience," said Chip Kelly at a recent press conference. "We had Jason Peters here so we wanted someone that could be a right tackle that could eventually move to left tackle and he had experience because he played right tackle I think his junior year before he moved over to left tackle. So he had some experience.
"I think that versatility is something we were really impressed with and obviously his athleticism at that position is something you're always looking for and I think we felt that he probably had the most upside out of all those guys just because of the limited amount of time he had on the offensive side of the ball ... So he really only had about 11 games with him as a left tackle but we felt with his athletic ability and his ability to jump, how explosive he was, his ability to run, that he was going to develop into a really good tackle. But the versatility was really a key part in that, too."
The Eagles could draft Decker with the idea in mind that Johnson will move to LT whenever Peters decides to retire, and Decker can fill right in at RT. Or, perhaps the Eagles could view Decker as an answer at LT, and just let Johnson stay at RT.
In the short term, Decker could serve as a swing tackle off the bench, which the Eagles presently do not have.
Decker has a great test this afternoon, when he'll face off against Michigan State's Shilique Calhoun.
Darren Sproles is unhappy with his role in the Eagles' offense, and in 2016, he'll count for $4,500,000 against the salary cap.
In my view, Sproles' talents are wasted when the Eagles get into their tempo offense, because he can't get on the field.
Miller could be a bigger, more explosive, cheaper version of Sproles, without the punt returning experience. In case you're unfamiliar with Miller's background, he was among the trio of Ohio State quarterbacks heading into this season, and he moved to WR/RB because of the logjam there. Miller could be the next in line of quarterbacks who try to make it at another position at the next level, like Brad Smith, Hines Ward, or Denard Robinson.
Miller may be the best athlete in the country. Watch this ridiculous move he put on this poor Virginia Tech defender earlier this season.
This would be a luxury pick on a team that can't afford luxury picks. However, if he's still sitting there in the mid-late rounds, Miller could be the next explosive talent that the Eagles can't figure out how to use.
Drango played at left tackle all four years at Baylor, but he may be better suited to play inside at the next level. In the bowl game against Michigan State last season, you can see him struggle in one-on-one situations against the Spartans' Shilique Calhoun. A lot of this is ugly:
He may struggle at the next level with quicker pass rushers, however, a move inside to guard could fit his skill set well. In the same video above, you do see him bury defenders when Baylor runs the ball. From the Eagles' perspective, Drango might fit an immediate need if he can learn the guard spot quickly enough, while also doubling as a player who can kick out to tackle in a pinch.
As we've noted previously, Stanford has churned out a lot of offensive line prospects recently:
| Year | Player | Team | Round | Overall |
| 2015 | Andrus Peat | Saints | 1 | 13 |
| 2014 | Cameron Fleming | Patriots | 4 | 140 |
| 2014 | David Yankey | Vikings | 5 | 145 |
| 2012 | David DeCastro | Steelers | 1 | 24 |
| 2012 | Jonathan Martin | Dolphins | 2 | 42 |
Garnett is a mid-late round prospect, who has well over 40 games of experience playing for Stanford at guard. Garnett is not the most athletic guy (hence his status as a likely mid-late round pick), but when he gets to the second level he looks to put defenders on the ground. Here's his game last season against Notre Dame. Check out the opening play, where they use him as an H-back in motion on a run play, and at the 1:17 mark, watch him pull to the left and bury the DB:
Check out our grocery shopping page here, or any of the individual grocery shopping posts below.
Follow Jimmy on Twitter: @JimmyKempski
Add some PhillyVoice RSS feeds.
