Eagles Inside Intel Could Lead To Dynamic Pass Catcher In Draft

It’s an easy connection to make after the Eagles hired Scot Loeffler to be their quarterback coach at the end of March. Nobody knows Harold Fannin better than Loeffler. In theory, at least.

Fannin was Loeffler's tight end when Loeffler was at Bowling Green for the previous six years. Fannin doesn’t have great size compared to Eagles’ current tight end Dallas Godert, who is an endangered species in Philadelphia unless something can be worked out regarding his contract.

Fannin is just 6-3, 241 pounds. Goedert is 6-5, 256. Unlike Goedert, Fannin needs plenty of work on his blocking in the run game.

There is a plethora of tight ends in this draft, some of whom can block, most of whom are better pass catchers. They come in all shapes and sizes, and the Eagles figure to find one somewhere among the eight picks they have entering the start of the three-day NFL Draft that opens on Thursday.

The Eagles certainly have plenty of intel on Fannin, thanks to Loeffler, so it doesn’t take a giant leap to think the Eagles will draft him. NFL Draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah does, too, and he delivered some of it on Friday during his always-lengthy, always-insightful conference call with media.

“He's a tight end darling,” said Jeremiah of Fannin. “It's kind of like a running joke amongst scouts. We always laugh about it because these position coaches go to work out players. If you are the tight end coaches that will all hop around and go to the pro days of the top tight ends, and they're around each other a lot.

“We would always joke that it's like the poster child for group think, where everybody kind of gets together and they all kind of have their guys that they like and then the guys that they don't like. The take, the consensus, was that Harold Fannin was the coaching favorite of the tight end coaches. They all really liked him. I like him, too. He's a really good player.”

The Mid-American Conference, in which Bowling Green competes, doesn’t send as many players onto the next level as the power five conferences send, but there is quality there. He was a first-team AP All-American, breaking school records on his way to being a finalist for the John Mackey Award for the nation's top tight end.

Fannin stood out in games against Penn State and Texas A&M this past season. He was the only player to go over 100 yards receiving against the Nittany Lions defense when he made 11 catches for 137 yards and a touchdown against them. Against A&M, he had eight receptions for 145 yards and a score.

Those two performances are what has Jeremiah ahead of LSU’s Mason Taylor on some teams’ draft boards.

“It looks a little different watching him run," he said. "He ran 4.7 once. He didn't blow it out, but he's faster than you think, and he just has a knack for getting open, separating, and it's kind of a different-looking kind of a waddle that he uses as a runner.

“He covers ground. He can make people miss. He's just excellent with the ball in his hands. To me I think he's, at the worst-case scenario, top of (round) three, but I think he has a good shot of going in the middle of the back portion of two.”

So, if the Eagles’ intel is good, they would have to take Fannin with the 64th overall pick, based on Jeremiah’s evaluation. Would they do that? In less than a week, we will know the answer.

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