With the 8th pick, the Eagles could take a transcendent player

One of the achievements of the Eagles' frenetic free agent binge over the last 48 hours is that it sets them up to do what every team should do with its top pick in the draft. By that, I mean selecting the best available player, regardless of the state of their roster.

There is some positional-specific wiggle room in this philosophy: supply, demand and expected value play a role, which is why you sometimes take a chance on the upside of a quarterback and why you never take a kicker (unless you are the Raiders, of course).

But by and large, the teams that get into the habit of drafting for need are the teams that make mistakes that reverberate years later. Howie Roseman once acknowledged this rationale -- drafting Jaiquawn Jarrett in the second round is one of those life lessons you can't help but incorporate into your worldview moving forward. 

The stakes of remaining committed to a Best Player Available strategy would seem to increase as a team moves up the draft board, and now that the Eagles are situated at No. 8 overall instead of No. 13, they are very much in the realm of potentially transcendent players.

As Eagles beat writer Zach Berman mentions in the latest episode of our weekly podcast, Not Another Philly Sports Talk Show -- shameless plug, it's free and easy here -- it would certainly prove to be a mistake if someone like UCLA linebacker Myles Jack turns into a difference-making player like Luke Kuechly or Von Miller after having been passed over by the Eagles so that they could add an offensive lineman who turns out to be a solid but unspectacular starter.

Offensive lines are important, but take a look at the ones that Carolina and Denver brought to the Super Bowl on the backs of Kuechly and Miller. When you have a player that can single-handedly disrupt the line of scrimmage on the defensive side of the ball, a guy like Michael Oher can be good enough at left tackle. 

Whether the Eagles believe Jack is such a player is beside the point. Maybe defensive backs Jalen Ramsey or Vernon Hargreaves grade out as a future Darrelle Revis. Maybe they judge one of the defensive lineman have J.J. Watt potential. Or maybe it really will be an offensive lineman. 

Point is, after addressing needs at safety, guard and quarterback, among others, the Eagles have given themselves enough depth to avoid the trap of feeling compelled to address a 2016 hole through this draft. The focus should rest squarely on finding that player whose mere presence makes every position better.