In our weekly Eagles chat on Wednesday, there were a lot of good unanswered questions that I was not able to get to, so we'll cover them here in an Eagles mailbag.
Question from Hiya: With the benefit of hindsight, would you go back and do a mock draft for the Eagles using players available at their picks?
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Sure, although this is also cheating, because I’ll also know who will be available later.
Round 1: Derek Barnett, DE, Tennessee: Super-productive DE in the best conference in college football. While O.J. Howard is tempting, the Eagles made the right pick here, in my view.
Round 2: Quincy Wilson, CB, Florida: Big, confident, physical corner who can match up with bigger receivers.
Round 3: Rasul Douglas, CB, West Virginia: I thought the Eagles got great value in Douglas at pick No. 99, so I won't change anything here.
Round 4: Ryan Switzer, WR, North Carolina: Shifty slot receiver and elite punt returner in college.
Round 4: Damontae Kazee, CB, SDSU: Physical slot corner with great INT production.
Round 5: Tanzel Smart, DT, Tulane: Smaller, penetrating DT who could be a passing down rusher.
Round 5: Xavier Woods, S, Louisiana Tech: Ball hawk safety who just needs more savvy.
Round 6: Elijah Hood, RB, North Carolina: Bigger back who can play in short yardage situations, and maybe even double as a fullback.
Question from BigDaddyWilks: There’s no way the Eagles stuck to best player available in the draft, right? It seems like there were better players available at the 14th pick, like Jonathan Allen and Malik Hooker?
I think a lot of people are selling Derek Barnett short. As for Allen and Hooker being better overall players, I would agree with Allen. I think he was a “top five” type of talent in this draft, but he was a medical risk. I don't have the Eagles' doctors' reports on him, so I don't know what they know. As such, I'm not in a position to say they should have taken Allen. Obviously, 15 teams other than the Eagles passed on him as well, so the Eagles weren't alone. As for Hooker, I don’t think he’s better than Barnett. Yes, he made a lot of big plays for Ohio State, and that’s appealing, but he was also a horrid tackler. He has a ways to go before he’s an all-around complete safety.
The one other player I’ll note here is O.J. Howard, who I mentioned above. A lot of people think was a better overall talent. Had they drafted a player like Howard, it would have signaled that the Eagles were committed to putting two tight ends on the field as their base offense. If that were to be the plan, then fine, go ahead and take him. Otherwise, if you have either Ertz or Howard sitting on the bench for a substantial portion of the game, then that would have been a bad use of resources.
Question from TK: Who do you think has a more productive year, Barnett or Garrett, factoring in their respective teams and polish?
Garrett’s team is so bad that it would be major surprise if he didn’t start from Day 1, whereas Barnett won’t be expected to do that. On playing time alone, I’d say Garrett.
Question from Norm: Biggest draft bust in this year’s entire draft will be...
Quarterback is usually a pretty safe bet. I’ll go with Mitchell Trubisky. I don’t think that Bears front office knows what they’re doing, just generally speaking. Even if Trubisky is good, he’s going to have a lot to overcome there with a roster that doesn’t have much of anything.
Question from dp03: Does the (Eagles’ cap space) include rookie salaries? If they are only about $2 million under the cap, don’t the Eagles need more to sign all the draft picks?
It does not include the rookie salaries, so yes, they do. Cuts are coming.
Question from Duce Stanley: Did you attend the other drafts (in other cities) in person? How would you assess Philly’s performance?
The next draft that I attend will be my first. It’s nearly impossible to get everything done I need to get done for the draft if I were to attend it in person. I’m either at the NovaCare Complex (typically on Days 1 and 2), or at my desk in my home office (Day 3).
So personally, I saw none of the spectacle ... but by all accounts Philly killed it.
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