Will Eagles go offense, defense, or both in first round of NFL draft?

Howie Roseman and Co. should have no shortage of options with a pair of first-round picks.

Eagles general manager Howie Roseman shakes hands with defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon.Read moreYONG KIM / Staff Photographer

Published April 28, 2022, 12:26 p.m. ET

We’ve looked at the specifics of which players the Eagles might draft with their two first-round picks. And in a normal year, mock drafts can be a difficult enough exercise. But that only gets infinitely more complicated when the team you’re trying to peg down has two picks just a few selections apart.

That leaves Howie Roseman and Co. with more than a few options for how they want to utilize those picks, whether that’s by actually taking a player or by trading the picks to move up or down the draft board. So, let’s look at it a different way — not by taking a look at which specific players the Birds will take, but rather by taking a positional approach and trying to peg down which positions Roseman will look to address in the first round.

When you look at the 10 national mocks we previously broke down, a pattern begins to emerge, one that has the Eagles looking to address both sides of the ball on Thursday night.

Here’s a look at how those mocks had the Eagles going, broken down by pick and position:

15th pick

5 WR

18th pick

7 CB

15th pick

2 S

18th pick

1 DT

15th pick

2 DT

18th pick

1 LB

15th pick

1 DE

18th pick

1 OL

While offense is certainly represented with five different national pundits predicting the Eagles will take a wideout in the first round, there was a definite lean to the defensive side. Overall in first round, there are 14 picks for the defense (7 CB, 3 DT, 2 S, 1 LD, 1 EDGE) and six for the offense (5 WR, 1 OL).

Here at Inquirer.com, Josh Tolentino has Eagles going wideout and then edge rusher. Jeff McLane has Eagles trading up at 15 (to get DT Jordan Davis at 11), then trading out of the first round at 18. And Marcus Hayes has them going defensive tackle and then wide receiver.

And if the mock drafts are right, based on majority rule, then it’ll be a receiver (Alabama’s Jameson Williams) at 15 and a corner back (Washington’s Trent McDuffie) at 18. But as you can see, not everyone agrees.

We’ll find out who was right and who was wrong once the draft gets underway at 8 p.m. on Thursday night.