Thoughts On The Latest Eagles’ Draft Rumors

Rumor and speculation continues to surround the Philadelphia Eagles as draft day approaches.

Despite the L.A. Rams already making a deal for the top pick in the draft, the Birds are reportedly still in hot pursuit of a quarterback, currently negotiating with the Cleveland Browns for the second overall pick in the draft.

The latest rumored proposal has the Eagles shipping the eighth pick, both 2016 third rounders, and first and third round picks in 2017 to Cleveland for the second pick.

Here’s some of my takeaways from those rumors.

The Eagles Would Receive Very Little Impact From The 2016 Draft

Thanks to Chip Kelly’s Sam Bradford trade from last season, the Eagles were already going into this draft with low ammunition thanks to the lack of a second-round pick.

If the Eagles lose both third rounders along with the eighth pick to move up and get a quarterback, its going to mean that the team will receive very little significant impact from the 2016 class.

Carson Wentz/Jared Goff would sit on the bench for the majority of this season while Sam Bradford and Chase Daniel play things out, meaning that the second overall pick in this draft wouldn’t get a real shot to make a difference until 2017, at the earliest.

Meanwhile, the team would receive no further help at any other positions until the fourth round. That’s right, the top three rounds of the draft would provide the Eagles with no help to speak of.

The Eagles Could Forfeit A Potential Top-10 Pick Next Year To Make This Trade

With no significant help coming through the draft, if this trade were to go down, the Eagles would be very hard-pressed to improve in a number of key areas.

The team would likely be stuck with injury-prone Ryan Mathews as their top running back instead of adding Ezekial Elliot in round one. They’d have to count on an aging Jason Peters to make it through an entire season healthy and effective instead of replenishing the offensive line depth in round three.

Depth at corner, linebacker, and defensive line would all not be properly addressed either, leaving the team with a great deal of holes.

Given the fact that Doug Pederson is a rookie head coach taking over what was already a mediocre team, the lack of incoming talent in the draft could make it very hard for the team to win more than six games, meaning that next year’s forfeited first-round pick would also likely fall somewhere inside the top 10 in the draft.

Whether the Eagles draft a quarterback or not, they’ve already committed to Sam Bradford as their starter in 2016, and if he falters, they have too much money invested in Chase Daniel not to give him an opportunity either. The rookie quarterback will not play meaningful snaps until the Birds are well out of playoff contention.

So either way, this is a team that will finish somewhere between six and eight wins, and have another high draft pick next year.

Is it worth it to throw that away on iffy quarterback prospects this year, or have a little patience, let things play out with Bradford/Daniel, build up other positions this year, and make a run at a better prospect next year.

I’ll take the latter.

It’d be one thing if I thought Wentz or Goff were great prospects. While I like Wentz, I don’t think he’s worth the kind of package it would take to get him.

Put it this way, no team in the league has been more desperate to find a quarterback than the Cleveland Browns. They’ve drafted three guys (Brady Quinn, Brandon Weeden, Johnny Manziel) in the first round in the last 10 years. If they’re now passing up an opportunity to draft a supposed elite prospect with the second overall pick, that doesn’t exactly speak too well about the kind of prospects Wentz and Goff are.

Teams in need of a quarterback don’t pass on the opportunity to draft one. And if they do, there’s a good chance that said prospect is much more likely to be as successful as Robert Griffin instead of Andrew Luck…