Safety a top priority for Eagles in NFL draft

SAFETY

What they have: Not enough. This is the biggest area of need heading into the draft. Malcolm Jenkins was a great signing last offseason, but Nate Allen was still Nate Allen, and now he plays for the Raiders. There was no real good free-agent safety on the market this year, after Devin McCourty, who would have been an Eagles target, re-upped with the Patriots.

If a starter doesn't emerge from the draft, or in the roster cuts between now and the season, we're looking at Earl Wolff, whose lingering knee problems completely stalled his progress last season, or December signee Chris Couplin, who was cut by the Lions and the Bills last season. Chris Prosinski also arrived late, from Jacksonville. Ace special-teamer Chris Maragos is a safety. Jaylen Watkins, mostly a corner as a rookie, will get a shot at safety, Chip Kelly said in March. Oh, and there's Ed Reynolds, the 2014 fifth-rounder who spent last season on the practice squad.

What they need: Another versatile, smart, steady safety to pair with Jenkins.

What's available: This is not a good year to be in need of an automatic starter. Even if the Eagles use their first-round pick, 20th overall, at the safety position, they might not get what they need.

Landon Collins from Alabama has been widely acclaimed as the best available, and is often mocked to the Eagles, but if you read the descriptions of Collins' abilities, he doesn't seem to fit the Birds. Collins is considered a box safety with limited cover skills. The Eagles want their safeties to be interchangeable, and they value cover skills more than run support.

Another top prospect, Arizona State's Damarious Randall, is undersized (5-11, 196), with short arms and small hands. Randall would be a big reach in the first round. There are several possibilities later in the draft, including Penn State's Adrian Amos (6-foot, 218), a player the Eagles have spent a good bit of time with this spring. Amos has long arms and is said to have above-average cover skills.

A first- or second-round possibility to watch here is UConn corner Byron Jones, who might be able to swing to safety, though usually in the early rounds, you don't draft guys to convert them. Maybe this would be more of a case of a guy who could play either spot if needed?

- Les Bowen