Eagles' Draft Path Could Once Again Lead to Stanford, TCU Campuses
The Eagles have worn out a path to a couple of college campuses through the years, developing a bit of a pipeline to a pair of schools in particular – Stanford University and Texas Christian University.
It is a path that general manager Howie Roseman and his staff could set out on again in the coming weeks leading up to the 2021 NFL Draft, with some talent available at both schools from round one all the way through round seven and on into undrafted free agency.
The Eagles have drafted three Horned Frogs since 2016 when they took Halapoulivaati Vaitai in the fifth round and won a Super Bowl with him starting at left tackle. In 2018, they went with reserve offensive lineman Matt Pryor in the sixth round and last year they turned to receiver Jalen Reagor in the first round.
“I think we’ve had really good players, it’s just they’re becoming a lot more known,” said TCU coach Gary Patterson following the school’s pro day on Friday. “One of the things that comes up with a TCU player is how they handle stuff, how they work, and how they do things.
“Besides from the athletic ability, that’s becoming a lot more important with social media and how young people handle themselves outside of the office, and how they’re going to be in the community and how they work.”
The key ingredient, according to both of the school’s coaches – toughness.
“Jeffrey Lurie, love him or hate him and I know how Philly is, sometimes you love him, sometimes you hate him, but Jeffrey has a lot of principles that he believes in,” said Stanford coach David Shaw Thursday evening, after the Cardinal held a pro day on a rainy and windy day in Palo Alto.
“I coached for the Eagles in 1997 and all those principles are aligned with our players. Our guys are leaders, our guys are tough. You know how Philly is, you have to have tough guys when you go to Philly, they’re tough and they're smart and they’re leaders.
“Howie Roseman is a friend of mine also, he understands what this place is about. You’ll see them look for guys who have those types of traits.”
The Eagles have three Stanford players on their roster – Zach Ertz, J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, and Nate Herbig. Last year, they drafted Casey Toohill who is now with Washington, and safety Ed Reynolds was a fifth-round pick in 2014.
“My dad used to say this all the time, in the NFL everybody’s 8-8,” said Shaw. “If you lose two games, you’re now 6-10, win two games, now you’re 10-6 and the difference between winning and losing sometimes is having guys that are tough and having guys that don’t make mistakes.
“That’s who our guys are. When they leave this place, they’re going to be great teammates, they’re going to be great players, they’re going to help you win a couple of games more hopefully than you lose. I think you’ve seen that throughout the league, there are certain teams, usually, if they have one Stanford guy, they end up having three.”
Here’s TCU's players in the draft:
Trevon Moehrig. Considered the best safety in the class, he could the third straight year a Horned Frog goes in the first round, joining Reagor last year and DE L.J. Collier at No. 29 to Seattle in 2019. It would also be the fifth time in the last eight years TCU will have a player picked in the first round.
“Every NFL team is looking for something different,” said Patterson about Moehrig. “Most people when they look for safety, safeties are in the box guys a lot of times, and for his size (6-2, 205) and with what you get with Tre is you get a man-player for his size, which is uncommon for a safety his size … He can do a lot of things. He can be very versatile.”
Others: Linebacker/safety Garrett Wallow, safety Ar’Darious Washington, and tight ends Pro Wells and Artayvious Lynn.
Stanford’s players:
Quarterback Davis Mills, cornerback Paulson Adebo, OT Walker Little, and WR Simi Fehoko.
Mills could be an Eagles target, perhaps with the No. 84 overall pick, while Adebo may be a sleeper pick at corner.
Adebo did not play this past season, but led the Pac-12 in pass breakups in 2019 and led the nation in them in 2018.
“I think he’ll have a really easy transition to the next level,” said Shaw. “He’s a long, fast corner.
“He’s over 6-foot, around 200 pounds, he ran a low 4.4, high 4.3 I think that’s what a lot of people wanted to see is how fast is this guy. But you can also see he’s put together. He’s big, he’s strong, he’s physical, he’s a great tackler.
“He runs low 4.4, high 4.3, then you see him broad jump over 10 feet, now you’re looking at a long, fast explosive guy and the last piece of (Friday’s pro day) puzzle was the ball skills. Now he can get pass deflections, he made some unbelievable catches. He’s got the hands of a receiver, so I think a lot of (NFL) people walked away checking a lot of their boxes.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, he didn’t play this year so a lot of people got him out of that (early-round draft) mix but I still think he’s one of the top corners in America and one of the top corners in this draft and think (Friday) really showed that.”
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s EagleMaven. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
