Eagles Drafting Well Late with Patrick Johnson and Tarron Jackson at Forefront
PHILADELPHIA – T.J. Edwards and Patrick Johnson are locker mates.
They were also underdogs, with Edwards arriving as an undrafted free agent in 2019 and Johnson coming in the seventh round of the 2021 draft.
“I always joke with him,” said Edwards. “I tell him he went in the seventh, I went in the eighth. We’re always going back and forth with that. But yeah, he has the same kind of chip on his shoulder.
"I gravitate to guys like that with something to prove because I know how it feels. You see it with him changing his body and being out here doing extra stuff after practice, before practice, it’s just the want-to he has.”
GM Howie Roseman and his staff are doing a solid job of finding players later in the draft the past few years.
It’s easy to overlook those late-in-the-draft picks because so much emphasis is put on the first-round pick and those that come on Day 2 in the second and third rounds.
Look at last year, for instance.
Picked ahead of Johnson were sixth-rounders Marlon Tuipulotu, Tarron Jackson, and JaCoby Stevens.
Jackson has looked vastly improved from his rookie season, when he played 19 percent of the defensive snaps at defensive end and recorded a sack, a forced fumble, 18 tackles, and two tackles for loss.
This year, there hasn’t been much said or written about Jackson, but he is having a solid camp and really showed up in the preseason opener against the New York Jets.
Jackson said things started to click about the midpoint of last season.
“Probably around game six or seven,” he said. “You really start getting comfortable with the techniques and everything. For me, it was more learning how to get off the ball, learning how to gain ground, and things of that nature so you know just getting comfortable with the new techniques."
Tuipulotu has gotten his share of first-team reps throughout the summer and also looks like a different player coming into Year 2. He should be in the rotation this year.
“He's doing a good job,” said defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon. “He played some really good snaps last year for us, and I think the things that we said - when we came in the off-season we gave each player two or three things like you have to get better at this. And it's not a general thing. It's a very specific deal with technique or something in the run or pass game. He's improved that part of his game.
“Marlon is one of those guys that allows us to play different things when he is in there with different people, which is big-time for us.”
Marlon Tuipulotu
Ed Kracz/SI Fan Nation Eagles Today
Stevens has done some nice things this summer, but the former LSU product is dealing with a heavy numbers game in a linebacker room that added Haason Reddick and Kyzir White in free agency.
In 2020, the Eagles grabbed some talent late in the sixth round as well with linebacker Shaun Bradley and WR Quez Watkins in the sixth round.
This year's sixth round delivered linebacker Kyron Johnson and tight end Grant Calcaterra, who have the potential to be solid contributors as time goes on.
Watkins is coming off a strong season and is in a position to get a high number of reps in an offense that will flow through A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Dallas Goedert.
“I feel like camp is going good,” said Watkins. “I’ve been moving more inside and outside. I’ve been feeling more comfortable inside. … College, I feel like I was just running, honestly. I feel like I was just faster and more athletic than everybody. And now, everybody is in the pros. Everybody is at the highest level, and now it just comes down to the technique and the most detail.
“I’ve been a lot better in my small details in my routes. … As a team and as an offense, it makes us very versatile. It’s hard to bracket one of us. It’s hard to scheme for all of us.”
Bradley is considered a special team standout, and he is, but he looks like he has improved to the point where is calamity strikes at linebacker, he could seamlessly slide in.
“I think Shaun is taking big-time strides from last year,” said Edwards. “Again, with his confidence in the scheme and what he’s doing.”
The late-round gold rush really began with the flier on Jordan Mailata in the 2018 seventh round and hasn’t let up much.
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.
