April 09, 2024
Kate Frese/For PhillyVoice
Eagles GM Howie Roseman from Week 2 against the Vikings on September 14, 2023.
The NFL Draft is a few weeks away, and it feels like anyone's guess what will happen in Philadelphia. The Eagles have some clear needs, and have spent the free agent portion of the offseason addressing them. They've made enormous splashes already, ranging from Saquon Barkley jumping NFC East rivals to Jason Kelce hanging up his cleats.
Still, what comes next may be more impactful for the future of the franchise. How will the front office maneuver the draft and everything that comes with it? A handful of intrepid Eagles writers attempted to paint pictures this week of how they see things going in Howie Roseman's war room:
The Eagles have been shedding older players, either through retirement or the organization's own decision to move on. Fletcher Cox, 33, and Jason Kelce, 36, both retired, Haason Reddick, 29, and Kevin Byard, 30, are both gone too. These may have seemed like positional decisions earlier this offseason, but according to NBCSP's Reuben Frank, it's a clear pattern and strategy as the NFL Draft approaches — and it could be a winning one.
Just on defense, the Eagles’ 11 projected starters as of now will have an average age of 25.4 (using opening-day ages). Last year, the 11 starters who played the most at each position averaged 28.8 years old.
That’s an average of nearly 3 ½ years younger per position on opening-day 2024 vs. opening-day 2023. And if any draft picks start, that disparity could be even greater.
(These figures project Kelee Ringo starting in place of James Bradberry just because I simply don’t believe the Eagles really intend to keep Bradberry around and if they do I refuse to believe he’ll be starting.)
Six Eagles in their 30s started at least 10 games last year, the most since 1994, when an astounding 10 did (Dave Alexander, Mark Bavaro, Randall Cunningham, Byron Evans, William Fuller, William Perry, Broderick Thompson, Greg Townsend, Herschel Walker, Mike Zordich).
Maybe it’s a coincidence the 1994 team fell apart late in the season in similar fashion to the 2023 team, losing its last seven games after a 7-2 start. [NBC Sports Philadelphia]
An under-discussed factor this offseason is the Eagles being pretty loaded with early draft picks. While there doesn't appear to be a consensus target for the Birds – they seem likely to go for an offensive lineman or a cornerback, but could also go wide receiver, or edge rusher — if Roseman really likes a player on the board, he should be able to easily move around and get him. More on that, from NJ.com columnist Bob Brookover:
So, yes, the second round of this year’s draft could end up being more valuable than the first for the Eagles. That’s especially true when you look at where the other teams in the league are picking. The Eagles have the 22nd, 50th and 53rd picks in the draft.
According to a trading-gauge draft chart developed by Brad Spielberger of Pro Football Focus and Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap.com, the Eagles’ first three picks have a point value of 3,440. The only teams with higher point values through the first two rounds are the Commanders (4,964), who pick second, 36th and 40th, the Bears (4,887), who pick first and ninth, the Cardinals (4,825), who pick fourth, 27th and 35th and the Patriots (3,656), who pick third and 34th.
Ultimately what that means is that Roseman has ammunition to move around the board, which history has shown he loves to do. [NJ.com]
As we just outlined via Brookover, the Eagles have more ammo to move up decisively in the first round than almost anyone. They also have the luxury of having absolutely no interest in taking a quarterback. The first round could be their oyster if they want to be aggressively pursuing non-QB prospects.
ESPN's Bill Barnwell sees them doing just that later this month, and doing so to upgrade the secondary:
GM Howie Roseman generally takes the longer view with his draft capital, but he's often willing to move up a pick or two to get ahead of the teams around him to add a player. He has gone to this tactic to land offensive tackle Andre Dillard (2019), DeVonta Smith (2021), Jordan Davis (2022) and Jalen Carter (2023) in Round 1 of recent drafts.
This year's trade could be a slight move ahead of the Dolphins for a cornerback, given that James Bradberry and Darius Slay are both in their 30s and could be cap casualties next offseason. Roseman was able to re-sign Avonte Maddox, and C.J. Gardner-Johnson could move back into the slot if necessary, but if you watched the Philadelphia defense in the second half of last season, you know teams can never have too many competent defensive backs on their roster. [ESPN.com]
It wouldn't be the Philadelphia media if there weren't confident contrarians abound. And over at BGN, Dave Mangels looked at the list of Philadelphia's official 30 prospect visits and noticed something: The Eagles haven't been meeting with many of the top players who would be the targets for big splashy trade-ups in the first round. The list of visits with analysis from our Jimmy Kempski can be seen here.
Mangels' take:
This looks like the visit list of a team hoping to draft an offensive lineman, a corner, a linebacker, and an edge rusher this year. It does not look like a team that is aiming to trade up, or maybe that’s what they want you to think. Nor does it look like a team that looks to be drafting a cornerback high. Or maybe that’s what they want you to think too. Smokescreen? [BleedingGreenNation.com]
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