Whenever the Eagles miss on a draft pick, years later fans will often say, "We should have drafted (fill in the blank of some other more successful player)." For years, Brandon Graham heard the names Earl Thomas and Jason Pierre-Paul. At least Thomas is a player the fan base definitely wanted without the benefit of hindsight.
More recently, the 2014 draft that netted Marcus Smith has fans pointing out that Raiders quarterback Derek Carr was available, even though most would have been furious at that pick after Nick Foles had just thrown 29 TDs and 2 INTs the previous season.
To keep it balanced, it's only fair that we point out unpopular acquisitions that the Eagles get right. In 2014 free agency, the overwhelming majority of fans badly wanted the Eagles to sign Buffalo Bills safety Jairus Byrd. Instead the New Orleans Saints let Malcolm Jenkins walk in free agency and signed Byrd to a six-year, $54 million deal. The Eagles, meanwhile, signed Jenkins to a far less lucrative three-year contract worth $15.5 million.
Over the last two years, Jenkins has established himself as easily one of the top 10 safeties in the NFL. Byrd, not so much. Here's what each player has done since 2014:
| Player | Tackles | PBU | INT (TD) | FF |
| Malcolm Jenkins (32 games) | 189 | 25 | 5 (2 for TD) | 4 |
| Jairus Byrd (17 games) | 75 | 5 | 1 | 2 |
Yesterday, Jenkins signed a new five-year deal worth $40.5 million, in case you missed it.
The best Eagles Combine performances
The NFL Combine will begin this week. In case you missed which players might make sense for the Eagles at each position, you can find them here:
MORE POSITIONAL PREVIEWS: RB | WR | OT | OG/C | DT | DE | LB | CB
However, taking a look back at previous years, here are five current Eagles players who tore the Combine up. To note, the numbers in the spider chart below are via the great site mockdraftable.com. The numbers represent what percentile each player performed at in comparison to other Combine participants at their position since 1999:
Lane Johnson
Johnson's 4.72 40-yard dash is the second best among offensive linemen in the recorded history of the Combine. His broad jump of 118" is the best among offensive tackles since 1999, his three-cone drill was seventh best, and his vertical leap was tied for 10th.
Jason Kelce
Kelce is undersized, but it's still a wonder he made it to the sixth round after his incredibly impressive Combine performance. His 4.89 40 time is the fifth best among centers since 1999, while his 4.14 20-yard shuttle was the best by a mile.
Here's how Kelce compares with running backs that finished in the top 10 in rushing in 2015 that run the 20-yard shuttle:
| Player | 20-yard shuttle |
| Jason Kelce | 4.14 |
| Doug Martin | 4.16 |
| Davonta Freeman | 4.26 |
| Jonathan Stewart | 4.34 |
| Latavius Murray | 4.36 |
| Adrian Peterson | 4.40 |
| Chris Ivory | 4.60 |
So that should give you an idea as to the kind of athlete Kelce is.
Eric Rowe
Rowe's numbers below are impressive as-is, however, they were more impressive because he was able to put them up while also being among the bigger corners to compete at the Combine, at 6'1, 205.
Mychal Kendricks
Kendricks finished atop at least the top 94 percentile in five categories, including the 40-yard dash (4.47 as a LB), 10-yard dash, vertical leap, broad jump, and three-cone drill.
Connor Barwin
Most project Barwin to play DE in Jim Schwartz's 4-3 defense, but he absolutely has the athleticism to play SAM linebacker as well.
Follow Jimmy on Twitter: @JimmyKempski