NFL draft: Eagles have made three offensive picks in what was supposed to be a defense-heavy draft
The team has just two remaining draft slots heading into the final four rounds Saturday.
Howie Roseman wasn’t that surprised, he said, to go through the first two days of the NFL draft without picking a defensive player, in what he and other league figures had predicted would be an “historic” draft for defensive linemen. The draft was said to be heavily tilted toward defense overall.
“We were patient, let the board come to us,” Roseman, the team’s top football official, said after the Eagles concluded business for the day. He said the board dictated an all-offense draft so far.
“I think we’ve been through enough drafts to know that things get hectic on draft day, it never goes exactly according to plan,” Roseman said. “We spend so much time charting scenarios. We always say, we get back on Friday and things change.
“Things changed here in terms of where the board went, offensively vs. defensively, but in a very positive way.”
The haul so far: First-round Washington State offensive tackle Andre Dillard, second-round Penn State running back Miles Sanders and Stanford third-round wide receiver J.J. Arcega-Whiteside. They might all turn out to be wonderful choices. Certainly, when you factor in free-agent additions DeSean Jackson and Jordan Howard, Carson Wentz has nothing to complain about going into OTAs.
But the second day of this draft shaped up as an ideal place to find that blue-chip safety the Eagles need as an understudy to Malcolm Jenkins, who is 31, and Rodney McLeod, who is rehabbing a surgically repaired knee, in the final year of his contract. Roseman hedged his bet there by signing former Vikings starter Andrew Sendejo to a one-year free agent deal; that isn’t likely to be any sort of long-term answer.
Highly-touted safeties abounded when Friday’s 53rd and 57th selections arrived, but the Eagles ignored them. Delaware safety Nasir Adderley, from Philly, went 60th overall, to the Chargers. The Rams took Washington safety Taylor Rapp 61st, Virginia safety Juan Thornhill went 63rd, to Kansas City.
Defensive line? Well, Central Florida defensive tackle Trysten Hill went to Dallas 58th, the pick right after Arcega-Whiteside.
In retrospect, the re-signing of released defensive tackle Tim Jernigan as the draft was about to begin Thursday was a similar move to the Sendejo signing, insulation against having to draft a defensive tackle to fill out the rotation. Could the lack of a d-lineman early in the draft induce Chris Long to return for another season?
Fans familiar with Sanders as Saquon Barkley’s successor at Penn State certainly welcomed his addition at 53. There had been a lot of speculation about Sanders and the Eagles, who hadn’t drafted a running back higher than the fourth round since LeSean McCoy in 2009.
Arcega-Whiteside, not so much.
“Sometimes these West Coast guys, who play late, they get a little underrated,” Roseman said. “This guy’s a baller. He’s got a very good skillset, and I think when the fans get to know him, they’re going to be very proud; he symbolizes the Eagle mentality.”
Last year, the Eagles drafted only five players, the least they’d added since picking only four times in 1989. They enter Saturday looking at the same sparse total as in 2018, unless Roseman finds a way to add to his stockpile. The Eagles have just two remaining picks, No. 138 in the fourth round and 163 in the fifth.
The Eagles aren’t scheduled to draft in the concluding sixth and seventh rounds; presumably they’ll use that time to get a leg up on agreeing to terms with undrafted free agents, who have been an important post-draft resource over the years.
Last season, undrafted running back Josh Adams appeared in 14 games, defensive tackle Bruce Hector in eight, and safety Tre Sullivan (a 2017 UDFA who didn’t play as a rookie) in 12.
“We have a lot of confidence in our ability to find guys after the draft,” Roseman said. “And we will be very aggressive about doing that.”
Roseman said the brain trust “looked at opportunities to move down” and add to the pick total Friday, but “didn’t want to get too cute” and lose two players they had targeted.
The Eagles could gain a pick Saturday by trading wide receiver Nelson Agholor, whose fifth-year option, which the Eagles picked up, calls for him to make $9.37 million this year.
There also are free agents still on the market who will trickle onto rosters over the next several months, as needs arise and asking prices drop. But the top three rounds of the draft are the best place to add future starters, and the Eagles’ defense hasn’t gained any.