The Eagles should be aiming to build an elite passing offense and adding Smith to their roster helps towards achieving that goal.
After several years of early draft misfires, sometimes you just have to throw your galaxy brain mindset out the window and take the guy who balls the hell out.
He will immediately help Jalen Hurts blossom in 2021 with the potential to be among the best wideouts in the league by the end of his rookie contract.
If it’s a situation where Rashawn Slater falls to 12, I’d bet my net worth that the Eagles call it in immediately to select the Northwestern offensive lineman.
Have the Chiefs passed on fast players because they have Tyreek Hill? After last season, what skill player do you look at and feel good about? Dallas Goedert is likely it.
The Eagles drafted a couple of players with clear size issues over the last few years, like San Diego State RB Donnel Pumphrey — but they did that in Round 4, and neither pick worked too well for them.
I think Waddle and Surtain are homerun, Top-10 players, and view Sewell and Alijah Vera-Tucker similarly, just at positions the Eagles don’t need as desperately.
If Waddle, Surtain, Horn, and Sewell are all not available, I’m trying to trade back.
The defensive coaching staff will love his energy, it’s a premium position for Howie Roseman, and for as worrisome as EDGE and WR are, at least they have some intriguing youth at both spots.
They should either trade up to jump in front of the Cowboys and Giants to grab Patrick Surtain to shore up their cornerback spot or do the sane thing and draft DeVonta Smith if he’s available, Jaylen Waddle if he’s on the board and Smith is not, or trade down if both are off the table and take Jaycee Horn or one of the offensive linemen expected to go in the middle of the first round, Christian Darrisaw or Alijah Vera-Tucker, are still there.
That being said, if DeVonta Smith is still there at 12, Howie Roseman has to resist the urge to galaxy brain the pick and go with some knucklehead defensive end prospect .
Roseman went out of his way to talk about not making a determination on a player’s role because of their size, and one would have to think they were thinking of Smith when they said that.
If these guys can’t play in the NFL, a whole lot of people besides whoever drafts them are going to be wrong.
My expectation is that Waddle is gone, Smith is on the board and they draft a cornerback or pass rusher, and take a WR in the 2nd.
Losing Carson Wentz and Doug Pederson certainly counts as addressing it, but it’s yet to be seen how effective Nick Sirianni will be in turning the offense around.
The team will almost certainly draft a player at a position of strength so I almost certainly expect the team to overreach and take a defensive lineman such as Jaelan Phillips or Kwity Paye.
Just three of the Eagles’ 36 draft picks over the last five years since he returned to power have started a full season for the team selections from the last four drafts.
The question is whether the Eagles have been able to pull their heads out of their asses at all over the last year to not only understand but also be comfortable with the fact that they aren’t the smartest people in the room and, more importantly, don’t NEED to be.
If the Eagles instead go galaxy brain and draft Kwity Paye because he reminds them of Brandon Graham, as has been reported, it’ll just show they’ve learned nothing and also, oh yeah, that their selection of Derek Barnett in the first round of 2017 was yet another evaluation failure.