Besides wide receiver, Eagles have another big draft need that could blindside them | David Murphy

Conventional wisdom does not have a strong track record this time of year, but recent events have convinced me that the Eagles are more likely than ever to abide by it in the first round of this year’s draft. One event, in particular, has me sold.

A week ago, I had the privilege of attending my first ever Zoom video news conference, where the two men in charge of the Eagles draft board spent 45 minutes answering questions from reporters. Turns out, a video news conference isn’t much different from a regular news conference, except everyone looks like they’ve been kidnapped. In reality, the only hostages were Howie Roseman and Andy Weidl. The rest of us were there on our own volition.

For guys like Roseman and Weidl – that is, people who actually do things for a living -- the experience of a normal press conference ranks somewhere between standing in line at the DMV and walking around all day wearing a sock that has lost its elasticity. That might sound strange to someone who has never attempted to answer 15 minutes of questions about their job performance from a bunch of people who A) have never done your job, and B) think that they could do it better than you. Apparently, it can rankle, which is why I remain convinced that critics will one day look back on Chip Kelly’s news conferences and realize that they were actually a brilliant three-year-long performance-art piece that attempted to probe the nature of the medium itself. Man, did that guy think he could do the media’s job better. And, hey, all he needs is one more 4-8 season in the Pac-12 to get his chance.

As for last Thursday’s cyber session, there was a moment when I got the sense that things were different, and not just because I was staring at a computer screen that looked like the television show you would have gotten had somebody not thought to put the “Hollywood” in front of the “Squares.” As somebody who had never before lived through an international pandemic that shuts down a $23 trillion economy and upends the most fundamental aspects of my life, one thing I’ve been interested to see about is how the ongoing situation diminishes some of the borders that balkanize society by status. Whoever you are, whatever your role in our great capitalistic machine, your lungs still operate by the same rules as the next guy’s. That sort of thing can have a unifying effect, even in a virtual press conference setting, as everybody realizes the thing they all share: an excuse to get away from the kids.

Anyway, that feeling lasted almost until the first question about wide receivers was asked. And that was when I decided that we really did have these guys pegged. Now, as I noted earlier, there is something about a table and a microphone that immediately reduces a public figure’s ability to give a direct and explicit answer to a question. The effect is most pronounced in personnel executives during the run-up to the NFL Draft. In April, you can ask a general manager how much he loves his mother and come away thinking that he might go offensive line instead. But even by that standard, Roseman and Weidl talked like they were worried about the Feds. Based solely on the transcript, you’d have a difficult time proving that either of them knew what a wide receiver was.

Roseman: “I would just say what we are doing is we are trying to stack the board based on the quality of the player. Obviously, there’s some positions that have more depth than others. I know a lot of other people have had the opportunity to talk about that specific position in that class, but we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves and say just because there’s a perceived position of strength that that’s where we’re going to choose from."

Weidl: “Time will tell with this draft class, as with each class. But it’s an exciting class. There’s different flavors, obviously, different types of receivers, and there’s plenty of them in this draft, and at every level, we feel. We’re excited. Our scouts have done a great job getting to know these players, stacking the board.”

There you go. This draft has wide receivers. More than one, in fact. Their names will be listed somewhere on the Eagles’ draft board.

As a longtime reader of predraft tea leaves, my guess is that the Eagles see things the way everybody else does. They know that their offense is in desperate need of a guy who creates space, and there is at least one member of this year’s talented crop they’d love to land. But they also know that, with the 21st overall pick, they are drafting in a range where they could easily miss out on the guy or guys they love most.

I also think that such a scenario will not automatically constitute a failure. In fact, there’s an argument to be made that the draft’s other loaded position is at the Eagles’ other biggest need. At the moment, the roster says that they are placing an awful lot of faith in Andre Dillard being the guy he was in two of the five games in which he played extensively as a rookie. At the moment, Lane Johnson is the only Eagle on the roster who has taken more than 350 NFL snaps at tackle, where this year’s draft is almost a talented as wideout. On the interior, Jason Kelce is going to be 33 this season, and Brandon Brooks is going to be 31. Beyond the four veterans, three of whom will be 30+ years old, the linemen on the Eagles roster have combined to see 416 NFL snaps: 337 from Dillard, 79 from Matt Pryor, and zero from everybody else.

The best time to restock a position is before it becomes necessary to do so. The top of this year’s OL class includes Iowa’s Tristan Wirfs, Alabama’s Jedrick Wills, and Louisville’s Mekhi Becton. But there several others who could warrant a first-round grade (Georgia’s Andrew Thomas, Houston’s Josh Jones, USC’s Austin Jackson, etc.). There’s a chance the best available player plays the same position as the guy the Eagles traded up for, but they shouldn’t let that stop them.

Put simply, part of wisdom is knowing what you don’t know. And you can trust a sports writer on that. It’s our predraft expertise.