Eagles' Draft Must Pay Immediate Dividends

Going with a youth movement is one thing, but finding players who can be part of will be what this draft is all about

In honor of the 2020 NFL Draft now only one month away from first-round action on April 23, it feels like a good time to see what has possibly changed with the Eagles in preparing for the three-day draft now that they have begun to add pieces to their roster during free agency.

General manager Howie Roseman has done a commendable job so far adding pieces to the defense. The Eagles no longer have a glaring need on that side of the ball after Roseman has added a piece at every level of the D.

If free agency continues without any more offensive additions other than the decision to bring back backup quarterback Nate Sudfeld, the Eagles will go heavy on offense in the draft, especially at receiver.

They would also need a running back, some offensive line depth, and perhaps a late-round, developmental quarterback and maybe even a tight end.

Not to say that the Eagles shouldn’t be looking at cornerbacks and safeties, but the fact that Roseman already filled in some cracks in the roster at those spots certainly helped.

Roseman had 10 picks with which to work but traded two of them away - Nos. 85 and 166 – to acquire cornerback Darius Slay and is now left with eight. That is still enough to do some damage, provided their player evaluations are spot on, but instead of having three picks in the top 100, they are now down to two.

Their third pick in the draft just spills past 100, at No. 103.

The Eagles must hit on two of their first three picks, finding at least two players who can step in and make an immediate impact. They don’t have to necessarily be starters, but they must be ready to do what running back Miles Sanders did as a rookie.

Preferably they would hit on all three of their first picks, with all three having the ability to step in and play at a high level.

That hasn’t happened in the past three drafts.

In 2019, the first three picks were Andre Dillard, Sanders and J.J. Arcega-Whiteside. Only Sanders was able to step in and make contributions all season long.

In 2018, the first three picks were Dallas Goedert, Avonte Maddox, and Josh Sweat. Maddox and Sweat came in the fourth round, and while Maddox played and helped, Sweat made it into just four games as a rookie and played only 68 snaps.

In 2017, the first three were Derek Barnett, Sidney Jones, and Rasul Douglas. Uh, yeah.

With that in mind, at what positions do they need to get players who will make an immediate impact?

My answer would be receiver, defensive end and safety/cornerback.

Finding a receiver is obvious and will likely come with the Eagles first-round pick at No. 21.

Because the draft is loaded with pass catchers, however, it’s not out of the question the Eagles could spend that first pick on a safety such as LSU’s Grant Delpit or Alabama’s Xavier McKinney or even a pass rusher such as LSU’s K’Lavon Chaisson or Iowa’s A.J. Epenesa.

The Eagles could answer the question before the draft if they were to ship it to Jacksonville to acquire pass rusher Yannick Ngakoue. He would be an impactful player right out of the gate.

If that happened, they would have to go receiver in the second round and maybe a safety like Clemson’s K’Von Wallace in the third round or a cornerback like Louisiana Tech’s Amrik Robertson, who the Eagles had in for a top-30 visit before travel restrictions were put in place due to the spread of COVID-19.

There should be plenty of good receivers that will still be around in the second round with the 53 pick. Penn State’s K.J. Hamler and Notre Dame’s Chase Claypool come to mind.

Whichever direction the Eagles go, whichever player they take in the first three rounds, they must get it right. These players have to be ready to contribute on a team that wants to get younger, because they will be part of that youth movement.