Mailbag: A way-too-early look at the Eagles' top five draft targets

Earlier this week, we solicited questions for an Eagles mailbag via Twitter. Thank you as always for doing half the work for me. We'll break this up into two different mailbags. We published "Mailbag Part I" on Friday. Here's Mailbag Part II.

Question from @ChinoLTS: Top 3-5 draft targets. Assuming a top 10-15 pick at worst.

The Eagles could have some opportunities to trade out and land a bounty of picks if they land a top five pick, but if they stick and pick we all realize that they'll bolster their lines, which has been their M.O., like, forever, right? 

I'll go top five:

• Will Anderson, DE, Alabama: That Saints pick will likely have to land in the top five for the Eagles to have any chance at drafting Anderson, who has 32.5 sacks in 39 career games. In addition to his obvious ability to get to the quarterback, Anderson takes pride in blowing up the run game, and is a hard-nosed, physical player who gives outstanding effort. He has even demonstrated that he can cover if you want to drop him on occasion. He's so gifted that he can play DE, SAM, and kick inside on obvious passing downs. He has the speed, burst, power, and athleticism to be an elite NFL edge rusher.

• Jalen Carter, DT, Georgia: Carter has a extremely impressive blend of quickness, power, change of direction, and hustle, who can be a long-term replacement for Fletcher Cox. He had a slow start to the 2022 season because he was dealing with an MCL injury, but he has picked up of late, with 16 tackles, 2 sacks, and 2 forced fumbles in Georgia's last three games.

• Bryan Bresee, DT, Clemson: Bresee has 48 tackles, 8 sacks, 14 tackles for loss, and 4 batted passes in 22 career games. While his production isn't otherworldly, it is easy to see his explosiveness on the field. He is an excellent run defender, and he has plenty of upside as a pass rusher. In the Eagles' defense, Bresee could play multiple spots along the defensive line, at 3-tech, 1-tech, or DE.

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• Myles Murphy, DE, Clemson: At 6'5, 275, Murphy has prototype size, and some power to go along with it. He had 4 sacks as a freshman in 2020, and 8 sacks in 2021, and 6.5 sacks so far in 2022. Like Bresee above he is also a good run defender. Murphy has some inside-outside versatility, and would make sense as an eventual replacement for Brandon Graham.

• Paris Johnson, OT, Ohio State: Johnson is athletic with great length (35.5" arms), and is excelling at LT for Ohio State after playing RG in 2021. Should Isaac Seumalo land with another team next offseason, Johnson is a player who could play at RG in the short term, and eventually take over for Lane Johnson at RT (or for Mailata at LT, with Mailata flipping to the right side) whenever Johnson retires. (Johnson said he wants to play maybe two more years after this current season.)

Question from @OfficeLinebacker: Many, self included, are ready to fire Jonathan Gannon into the sun. On paper, however, the defense isn’t that bad, stat-wise at least. How is he doing, objectively?

There were some folks calling for Gannon's job on WIP this week, which prompted Nick Sirianni to stand up for Gannon on the air. Sirianni was asked about that exchange in a presser this week.

"I believe in Jonathan Gannon," he said. "He's a great football coach, and you have continued to see the defenses get better and better and better as he's been here. I get it, we all get it, we're in a week-to-week league when it comes to some of these things, right? We know that after a bad performance they're going to be calling for [our jobs]. After a good performance, right, whatever. So, we understand the waves of the season.

"I just thought it was important, too, like, one, I believe in him, and he knows that, I tell him that all the time. But after just such a great defensive performance, and it has been great defensive performances throughout the year. Like think about where we are in all the major statistical things and the turnovers and the explosive plays. Really all I care about statistically are turnovers, explosive plays, and points, and we're doing a really good job in all those things.

"I just have so much faith in him, I have so much faith in his staff, so much faith in those players. They play for him. I just think he's a special coach. I would love for him to be here the entire time I'm the head coach here, but I know that that's probably not reality. I love Jonathan Gannon, how he coaches, and just who he is as a person. I'm so glad he's our defensive coordinator."

Sirianni is correct that the defense has steadily improved since this staff took over in 2021, though obviously there have been plenty of bumps in the road. On his points about the statistical achievements, the numbers certainly look impressive:

If I told you before the start of the season that after 10 games, the Eagles' defense would be 4th in overall DVOA, 3rd in EPA per play, 9th in yards per drive, 6th in points per drive, 6th in red zone defense, and they'd lead the league in turnovers, we'd all happily sign up for that, right? I think that categorizing the defensive stats as "not bad" is underselling it a touch.

And yet, I do think there is valid cause for some nitpicks, most notably the run defense, and some occasional instances in which the defense was a little too slow to adjust to some opposing gameplans. His style of defense can also be highly unpleasing aesthetically when opposing offenses are able to methodically drive the field with a high number of plays run and a lot of time burned off the clock.

I also think that some of the Negadelphians have legitimate concerns about what might happen to the Eagles' (so far) stellar pass defense if they have to face better quarterbacks in the playoffs, considering they haven't exactly faced a gauntlet of QB excellence. A quick list of the quarterbacks they have faced, and those quarterbacks' QBR rankings:

Overall, I think defensive coordinators have become easy targets of frustration in Philly. We saw a lot of that with Jim Schwartz, who mostly did a very good job during his stay here. Gannon is now feeling that as well. He has some faults, but the overwhelmingly impressive big picture numbers are pretty hard to ignore.

Question from @Jack_Despeaux: The Eagles had their first loss in a flukey game, and are missing the impact of Dallas Goedert and Jordan Davis. They barely eked out a win over the bad colts. When should we crack each other over the heads and feast on the goo inside?

*And Avonte Maddox. But to answer your question... whenever the Cowboys or Vikings surpass them in the standings.

Question from @RonJAdams: Is there a return guy equivalent to Ndamukong Suh and Linval Joseph? Seems the Birds could use that.

Ha, yeah, I'd say they could use an upgrade there. I think that if there were someone worthwhile available, they'd have been added a month or two ago. Unfortunately, I don't think an attractive returner is walking through the door at this point. 

Question from JaxBill10: With Joseph and Suh on identical incentive-laden contracts, are they competing for one roster spot when Jordan Davis returns?

Are you asking if the Eagles will cut one of them? If so, no, they're not competing for jobs. Other players elsewhere on the roster will have to be let go or put on injured reserve to make room for Davis' return.

Question from @ndutton13: What Thanksgiving food would you be happy to eat every week and why is it stuffing?

Mac and cheese is already a regular staple of my diet.

Question from @avoidthenoid: More likely to happen in your lifetime: Eagles win back-to-back Super Bowls, or the Commanders press box food spread unseats Dallas in one of your season rankings?

If Dan Snyder doesn't sell the team, the Commanders will never have a better spread than the Cowboys. So in that case, I'll take the Eagles back-to-back Super Bowl wins. If he sells the team to, saaayyyy, Jeff Bezos, then I like the Commanders' food spread chances better.

Question from @kenny1130: How long/far do you walk on the days you do 20K steps?  Is it throughout the course of a day or do you go for a 10 mile+ hike?

The day after Thanksgiving I had a very lazy day. I did few things around the house, but mostly just wrote at my desk and otherwise just kind of chilled out with my turkey hangover. I still had 4,656 steps. So on days that I bang out 20K, I really only need to generate ~15K more steps than I'm getting with almost no effort. I find that a mile is generally worth around 2,000 steps, maybe a little less. So I basically need to actively find a way to walk/run seven or so extra miles in a day to get to 20K steps. Sometimes I'll bang it out in one shot, and sometimes I don't have the luxury of time to do that so I have to split it up a bit in between getting other stuff done.

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