April 27, 2019

Eagles select Northwestern QB Clayton Thorson with the 167th pick in 2019 NFL Draft

By Jimmy Kempski
PhillyVoice Staff

With their fifth round pick of the 2019 NFL Draft, 167th overall, the Philadelphia Eagles selected Northwestern QB quarterback Clayton Thorson.

Thorson is a big quarterback at 6'4, 222, and he fits the physical profile of some of the other quarterbacks the Eagles have brought in since the Howie Roseman / Doug Pederson regime began.

Quarterback	Height	Weight
Carson Wentz	6'5	237
Nick Foles	6'6	243
Nate Sudfeld	6'6	227
Clayton Thorson	6'4	222

Thorson was thought of as a "second tier quarterback" in this draft, with most projecting him to be an early Day 3 pick. A highlight reel:

Back in the Andy Reid days, the Eagles used to draft a quarterback every two or three years, which is something Jeffrey Lurie has stated he would like to get back to doing. The following is a list of quarterbacks the Eagles have drafted since the start of the Andy Reid era:

Year	Player	Round	Overall
1999	Donovan McNabb	1	2
2001	A.J. Feeley	5	155
2004	Andy Hall	6	185
2007	Kevin Kolb	2	36
2010	Mike Kafka	4	122
2012	Nick Foles	3	88
2013	Matt Barkley	4	98
2016	Carson Wentz	1	2
2019	Clayton Thorson	5	167

The Eagles would eventually trade McNabb, Feeley, Kolb, Foles, and Barkley, once they were no longer of use to the team, and in three of those cases, they received great value in return.

While drafting quarterbacks has been a good long-term investment strategy for the Eagles, it wouldn't have made sense for them to draft one last year, with Carson Wentz, Nick Foles, and Nate Sudfeld in place. This year, with Foles now in Jacksonville and Sudfeld scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent next offseason, it absolutely makes sense to reintroduce that draft-and-develop tradition.

But what kind of quarterback would they be looking for?

"We’re very conscious of the culture," Lurie said at the NFL annual meetings, when asked about the getting back to the strategy of drafting quarterbacks with regularity. "We’ve had an incredible quarterback room, with Carson, Nick, and Nate. It’s one of the reasons they’re all so poised for success. That quarterback that we bring in – let’s say it’s this year’s draft or next year’s draft – it needs to be a great fit in that room, so you’re not just drafting a player that can be a good backup quarterback, but somebody that can help the culture with the quarterback who is starting. You want a relationship that is healthy, where they help each other. That’s a key part of it too."

Thorson is thought of as an intelligent quarterback, who would fit Lurie's description.