Slimming down the Eagles draft board

Photo by Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images

Pro days are over, all that is left in the draft process is for teams to finish up their 30 visits, finalize their draft board, and then spend two weeks hotboxing the media. In the NFL where there is smoke, there isn’t always fire.

Tasseography

In recent years the Eagles prospect visits were mostly a collection of early to mid first round talents. This year they are more focused on players projected to be late first to second round selections, which of course makes a lot of sense since they have three picks between 22 and 53.

OT Brandon Coleman, TCU
OT Travis Glover, Georgia State
OT Tyler Guyton, Oklahoma
G Cooper Beebe, Kansas State
G Christian Mahogany, Boston College
G Zak Zinter, Michigan

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?

This week’s Prospect Of the Week

If reading tea leaves tell us one thing, sticking your fingers in the air to judge the way wind is blowing might tell us another.

A lot of mock drafts have the Eagles taking Nate Wiggins. It’s an excessive amount of mock drafts that have this. Of the 44 mock drafts since April 1st logged by Mock Draft Database where Wiggins is available at 22, half, (fittingly 22) have the Eagles taking Wiggins. That just makes me confident that Wiggins will not be the pick, if he’s even on the board. Look at the visit list above, the only 1st round defensive back they have met with has been DeJean, who was only this week cleared for football activity. If DeJean was able to participate at the Combine or his pro day, maybe they don’t even have him in.

The assumption that Wiggins will even be on the board seems a bit bold to begin with. More often than not three CBs are gone by 22nd overall. In two weeks someone else will be the prospect of the week for the Eagles. Cooper DeJean and Kool–Aid McKinstry took their turns. My guess is the next one will be Graham Barton as mock drafters shift their focus to the Eagles taking an offensive lineman who they think can plug in at RG and eventually move to RT.

It’s always a great year to not need a QB

Only four quarterbacks in the NFC East are currently under contract for 2025: The Eagles trio of Jalen Hurts, Kenny Pickett, and Tanner McKee, and… Daniel Jones. That’s it, that’s the list. Jones will not be on the Giants in 2025, so really it’s just the Eagles who are secure at the moment. The Washington Football Team Commanders are definitely drafting a QB. The Giants might/should be drafting a QB. The Cowboys, who the hell knows.

It is quite possible that two of Jayden Daniels, who loves getting blown up by defenders when he runs and he runs a lot; Drake Maye, who lists both Mitchell Trubisky and Daniel Jones as his mentors; or JJ McCarthy, who wasn’t really allowed to throw the ball, will be in the NFC East this year.

Maybe we’re looking at the NFC East as a division in line with the AFC North and AFC West where if you don’t have a QB you have no chance to win the division. Or maybe we’re looking at a rerun of the peak of the Andy Reid era where the Eagles had a huge advantage of playing in a crap division with mostly crap QBs. The Cowboys had Quincy Carter, WASTEAM had Patrick Ramsey, and the Giants had cromulent Kerry Collins.

With four first round QBs in this draft, and history indicates that two of them, if not more, will probably be busts. If those busts wind up in the NFC East, the Eagles could easily have the division to themselves for a little while.

No one knows anything about QBs, and it is always a great year to not need a QB.