A Recent History Between Eagles and Certain Colleges in the NFL Draft
Mock drafts have been logged in preparation for the three-day 2022 NFL Draft that begins on Thursday night, and they focus on the individual prospects that will be available.
The colleges that produce them aren’t talked about nearly enough and the cyclical tendencies teams like the Eagles have going back to certain schools.
For instance, the Eagles have been on a TCU kick in recent years, with OL Halapoulivaati Vaitai and Matt Pryor coming in 2016 and 2018, respectively, and WR Jalen Reagor in 2020.
They found West Virginia to their liking in back-to-back years, 2016 and 2017, with RB Wendell Smallwood in ’16 and CB Rasul Douglas and WR Shelton Gibson in ’17.
They took a pair from Penn State in 2019 (Miles Sanders and Shareef Miller) and another pair from the same school in 2020 when they went with Auburn O-linemen Jack Driscoll and Prince Tega Wanogho.
Last year, the Eagles took two players from the University of Alabama, back-to-back no less, with DeVonta Smith in the first round and Landon Dickerson in the second. It had been a long drought since they had cast their draft nets in Tuscaloosa. Like, 2002 long when they took WR Freddie Milons in the fifth round.
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This draft, though, feels like a Georgia draft.
The Bulldogs are the national champions, and the Eagles could be on the prowl for another double-dip scenario, this time from the Athens campus.
There are plenty to choose from:
Defensive linemen Travon Walker, Jordan Davis, and Devonte Wyatt, wide receiver George Pickens, safety Lewis Cine, and linebackers Nakobe Dean, Quay Walker, and Channing Tindall are among those who could on the first two days.
The Eagles have gone to the Georgia well a few times in this century, with the most recent selection being DB Brandon Boykin in the fourth round of the 2012 draft.
They also took DT Jeff Owens in the seventh round (2010) and OG Max Jean-Gilles in the fourth round (2006). The highest-drafted player Philadelphia took from Georgia since 2000 was WR Reggie Brown who went in the second round (35th overall) in 2005.
Alabama won’t get short-changed, though.
Once again, the Crimson Tide has players that figure to be gone by Friday night or early Saturday as well:
Offensive lineman Evan Neal, WRs Jameson Williams and John Metchie, RB Brian Robinson, linebacker Christian Harris, and DT Phidarian Mathis.
Then there is the University of Cincinnati.
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Darrian Beavers was asked during the NFL Scouting Combine in early March if he was familiar with some of the success stories his school and the Eagles authored in the draft.
The Bearcats linebacker immediately mentioned Jason Kelce, explaining that there are pictures of the Eagles center in the training facilities on campus. Beavers said Kelce had even spent some time on campus a few weeks before the Combine and talked to the team about the NFL and how to get there.
Kelce, of course, watched 190 players taken before him in the 2011 draft before the Eagles grabbed him in the sixth round.
The Eagles spent fifth-round picks on Bearcats in the 2005 draft to grab DE Trent Cole and in 2007 to take TE Brent Celek.
Kelce was the last player Philly took from Cincinnati, however.
The Bearcats, though have enough talent coming into this weekend’s draft to end that drought:
CBs Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner and Coby Bryant, safety Bryan Cook, QB Desmond Ridder, WR Alec Pierce, DE Myjai Sanders, and Beavers, who is projected as a sixth-round pick and, at 6-4, 237, could be a late-round pick that could blossom like Cole, Celek, and Kelce did.
One more school just for good measure: Notre Dame, just in case Kyle Hamilton is sitting there at 15 when the Eagles hit the clock on Thursday night and decide to make him the first safety they ever picked in the first round.
The last ND product the Eagles took was DT Trevor Laws in 2008 when the Eagles didn’t have a first-round selection and took Laws 47th overall. For the record, DeSean Jackson came two picks later in that draft.
DE Victor Abiamiri was a second-round pick in 2007, another year the Eagles didn’t have a first-round selection. Twenty-one picks before Abiamiri was taken, QB Kevin Kolb was picked.
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Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.s
