Philadelphia Eagles Dumpster Dive: Biggest Offensive Draft Busts in Franchise History

The Philadelphia Eagles have had their fair share of busts on the offensive side of the ball. Here's a closer look.

When it comes to drafting, and even in the computerized space age of analytics and combines and interviews, it remains an inexact science.

NFL teams are asking boys to become men and some fall short. It is felt most deeply by organizations - and their fans wielding draft guides - when high picks don’t make it. Busts also can and will cost front office jobs.

The Eagles have four championships (1948, 1949, 1960 and 2017-18) to their credit, as well as some near misses. There have been long gaps in between, and their draft history shows that is easy to see why.

One awful pick can eternally set a team back, especially when it is compounded by another and another and another to make up for it.

With the 2024 draft looming, perhaps we need to go back to the beginning with this dark journey into the past of Eagles’ draft busts.

This would mean the curse of Jay Berwanger, who played his college football at Chicago. Berwanger was the first winner of what is now known as the Heisman Trophy (it was called the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy in its first year) in 1935, which was also the first year of a formal draft in the NFL.

The Eagles had the first pick and selected Berwanger, but his salary demands led to a trade to the Bears. When George Halas couldn’t meet his asking price, Berwanger became a part-time coach at his alma mater and worked in the business world.

Stories like these were not uncommon, however.

January 2, 2011; Philadelphia, PA USA; Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Kevin Kolb (4)

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The NFL didn’t pay well, especially considering the bodily risk, and most of the players were coming out of college with actual degrees. It was also the Great Depression, then it was World War II.

To truly put the Eagles draft failures under the microscope, we really need to fast forward to the modern era, after the merger of the AFL and NFL, because it was also not uncommon to simply lose a bidding war with an AFL team that also drafted the same player and outbid for his services.

In that context, let’s take a dumpster dive and sift through the garbage, beginning with the offensive side of the ball.

QUARTERBACK

The knee-jerk reaction out in mean streets and back alleys of Kneejerk City would be to say Carson Wentz, with the most cogent part of that argument being that GM (or whatever) Howie Roseman gave up a king’s ransom to move up to draft Wentz second overall in 2016 out of North Dakota State.

While he was not generational quarterback, Wentz did earn his Super Bowl ring as much as anyone on that 2017-18 team. He was on track to win MVP before a season-ending December knee injury and the path to the Super Bowl would not have gone through Lincoln Financial Field with him.

John Reaves: Drafted 14th overall out of Florida in 1972, the late Reaves (died in 2017 at age 67) only lasted until 1974 before bouncing around the league and swimming to the surface in the USFL.

He started 7 games as a rookie in 1972 and went 0-7, completing 48.2 percent of his passes with 7 touchdowns against 12 interceptions.

The Eagles then traded for Roman Gabriel and Reaves only saw the field 14 times the next two seasons while never starting. His passer rating here was … 55.2.

Kevin Kolb: Drafted in the second round out of in 2007 out of Houston, it seemed as if the plan was to groom Kolb to ascend to the throne after Donovan McNabb retired, but a guy named Michael Vick got in the way by playing out of his mind in 2010 (the Eagles finished the regular season at 10-6 after a 3-4 start with Kolb). Kolb was traded to the Arizona Cardinals and failed to do much there.

RUNNING BACK

Leroy Keyes: In 1969, when O.J. Simpson went first overall and Pro Bowl tackle George Kunz went second, the Eagles grabbed Keyes third after a stellar career at Purdue.

His pro career, not so stellar. Before being shifted to defensive back, Keyes started 11 games at running back as a rookie and carried 121 times for 361 yards and 3 touchdowns while catching 29 passes for 276 yards.

Keyes did manage to intercept 6 passes in 1971 as a safety, but he was finishing up his career by 1973 in Kansas City.

The next pick, fourth overall, belonged to the Pittsburgh Steelers. They took “Mean” Joe Greene.

Michael Haddix: What do Bruce Matthews, Jim Kelly, Dan Marino and Darrell Green all have in common? All are Hall of Famers drafted between No. 9 and 28 in 1983.

Haddix? The Eagles took him at No. 8 – with all those icons still on the board.

They were likely seeking an heir apparent for an aging and aching Wilbert Montgomery in the 225-pound running back out of Mississippi State (his middle name was even Montgomery), but Haddix had a middling career here (39 starts in six seasons). He scored a touchdown in his first game but none after his second season (and three overall).

Haddix (144 career receptions, but zero TDs in a career that included a few seasons in Green Bay) holds the dubious distinction of being the only NFL player with more than 500 career carries to average 3.0 yards per tote.

Harry Jones: In 1967, the first AFL-NFL draft, the Eagles took this Arkansas product 18th overall. He was cut before the season in 1971 and was promptly cut again while trying to make a comeback in 1972.

His career numbers? Try 44 carries for a whopping 85 yards.

The first round in 1967 included some classic players – Bubba Smith, Bob Griese, Floyd Little, Alan Page, Gene Upshaw – but all were long gone by pick 18. However, the second round saw Hall of Famers Lem Barney and Willie Lanier go off the board.

WIDE RECEIVER

Aside from maybe free safety, this might be a position where the Eagles always seemed to have a standout. However, attempts to replenish in the draft were not always as plentiful.

Jalen Reagor: This is the one that Roseman will rightfully never live down. Reagor, out of TCU, was originally rated as a Day 2 pick (second or third round) but his stock was slowly rising heading into the 2020 draft. Whether it was the coaches or the scouts pushing for him, it was Roseman who called his name 21st overall. The Minnesota Vikings, stunned but elated, took superstar Justin Jefferson at No. 22.

Kenny Jackson: An All-American at Penn State, the Eagles took Jackson fourth overall. There were whispers that he was over-drafted, and those whispers turned to screams once he hit the field.

In seven seasons, his numbers were adequate, having caught a career-best 40 passes in his second campaign while averaging 17.2 yards a catch for his career.

Mike Bellamy: Mike who? Exactly. With Jackson flaming out - and Mike Quick retired and Cris Carter dispatched to Minnesota - Buddy Ryan was looking for reinforcements in 1990 and tabbed the Illinois product in the second round.

Bellamy’s career numbers? Goose eggs across the board. Take heart, though, he did find himself in the World Football League.

Freddie Mitchell: While you can somewhat excuse Bellamy, as he went 50th overall, Mitchell was first-round pick (25th overall) in 2001 out of UCLA. His career highlight was a fourth-and-21 catch from Donovan McNabb in a playoff game, earning him a free pass from some fans, but his numbers from 2001-2004 (90 catches, 5 touchdowns) left a lot to be desired.

Aug 12, 2022; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Jalen Reagor (18)

Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

TIGHT END

This not a position that typically sees a lot of first- or second-round picks, and the Eagles have done OK here (Charle Young in 1973, Keith Jackson in 1988 and Dallas Goedert as a second-round pick in 2018).

Still, every rose has its thorn.

Lawrence Sampleton: There is a school of thought that you can get a lot of mileage of tight ends off of used car lots, and Dick Vermeil learned this the hard way in his attempts to replace Keith Krepfle and/or upgrade from John Spagnola.

Sampleton came out of Texas in 1982 as an athletic specimen. Even in the present day, his frame of 6-5 and 233 pounds would have been impressive. What was not impressive for the second-round pick were his career numbers. In two seasons here, he started just twice and mustered three catches.

OFFENSIVE LINE

Play a funeral dirge. It’s that bad. How bad? Andre Dillard (22nd overall in 2019 with Josh Jacobs, Montez Sweat and Deebo Samuel available) doesn’t even make the cut in the race to the bottom.

Kevin Allen: A 6-3 and 285-pound left tackle, Allen was drafted with the ninth overall pick in 1985 (Jerry Rice went 16th). He started in a game in which the Lawrence Taylor-led New York Giants sacked Eagles quarterbacks eight times. The Indiana product was then relegated to special teams and was being prepped for a move to center during the offseason when the situation went from bad to worse.

Allen tested positive for cocaine after reporting to training camp, and he was no longer an Eagle by October. He was then charged with rape and the rest isn’t history.

Bernard Williams: Drafted 14th overall out of Georgia in 1994 to be the left tackle of the future, the 6-8 and 317-pounder was suspended for violating the league’s substance abuse policy and never applied for reinstatement.

He did play in other leagues – CFL, XFL, AFL – and turned his life around. That was good for Williams, the uncle/mentor of Eric Berry, but not so much for the Eagles with future Pro Bowl players like Jamir Miller and Aaron Glenn still on the board.

Danny Watkins: The Canadian was drafted in the first round of the 2010 CFL draft but made the fateful decision to return to Baylor. The Eagles drafted him 23rd overall in 2011 and he has been the butt of jokes ever since.

After a dog-and-pony show at the draft, with his fellow Canadian firefighters on the stage for the announcement, Watkins (now a firefighter in Texas) was, at 26, the oldest player drafted since 1971.

At 6-3 and 310 pounds, he was moved inside to guard but failed to do much and this dumpster fire was doused in 2013.

Starting with defensive end Cameron Jordan one pick later, there were a grand total of 20 Pro Bowlers (including Jason Kelce) selected after Watkins.

Antone Davis: The Eagles traded away two first-round picks for the right to take this perceived late bloomer (one year of high school football) with the eighth overall pick in 1991.

The 6-4, 330-pound tackle out of Tennessee was kept around for five seasons, being shuffled back and forth inside to guard, and getting intermittently benched for lifeless play.