Four big-picture takeaways from the Eagles’ draft haul

In more than one way, the Eagles draft weekend was quite predictable.

The byproduct of having a tenured general manager like Howie Roseman is a large enough track record of drafts and offseason moves to uncover tendencies and philosophies. The 2023 class fits in with those philosophies, especially as Roseman tries to maximize the Eagles’ chances of returning to the Super Bowl next season.

Here are Inquirer Eagles’ beat reporter EJ Smith’s four big-picture takeaways from draft weekend:

After finishing last season with the third-highest sack total in NFL history, the Eagles’ defensive front somehow has a legitimate chance to be even better next year thanks to team’s first-round selections.

Javon Hargrave, who left for San Francisco as a free agent, is the only major contributor from last year’s group not returning. The defensive tackle had 11 sacks and was a big disruptor on the interior, but first-round rookie Jalen Carter was the best possible replacement. Stylistically, Carter is similar to Hargrave in that he can win with both power and quickness depending on the situation.

It would be unfair to pencil in a first-year pass rusher for double-digit sacks, but Carter has a chance to be an impact player right away. With the help of young interior guys like Jordan Davis and Milton Williams, the Eagles should be able to make up for the production lost with Hargrave.

On the edge, the Eagles’ four-man rotation is even deeper than it was last year, with Georgia edge rusher Nolan Smith effectively replacing Robert Quinn as the fourth rusher. Even though he’s an undersized edge, Smith’s college tape suggests he can hold up against the run and get some early-down work as a result for the Eagles. New defensive coordinator Sean Desai likes to get creative on known passing downs, too, meaning Smith could even share the field with Haason Reddick, Josh Sweat, or Brandon Graham on some third downs.

The Eagles also added Texas defensive lineman Moro Ojomo in the seventh round, giving Desai a true 3-4 defensive end capable of filling snaps from the 4i-technique alignment just inside the offensive tackle.

Even with last year’s production, Roseman went into the weekend knowing the Eagles needed to get better up front and aggressively addressed the pass rush, something that further illustrates how they want their team to be built.

“We want to build a team with an O-line and D-line,” Roseman said Saturday, “and it was important for us to make a statement in this draft in this offseason that this is how we believe we’re going to win.”

Speaking of the Eagles’ defensive front, the decision not to draft an off-ball linebacker further commits the team to its current use of resources on defense.

The Eagles are spending $6.1 million on linebackers next year, which ranks 31st in the NFL, ahead of only the Los Angeles Rams. They’re spending just $7.2 million at safety, which ranks 29th.

Some teams like to build their defenses “up the spine,” with strong defensive linemen, linebackers, and safeties, but the Eagles are built more along the perimeter, with high-priced pass rushers and cornerbacks. A starting off-ball linebacking group of Nakobe Dean and Nicholas Morrow might be exploitable at times, but the Eagles are betting on their pass rush to make up for it.

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There have been plenty of jokes about Roseman’s obvious predilection toward Georgia players coming out of this draft, but the three Bulldogs players selected speaks to a bigger trend the last few offseasons.

After several drafts with outside-the-box selections based on different philosophies, Roseman’s recent approach boils down to drafting proven players from major college programs.

In the last three years, the Eagles have taken seven players from the previous year’s college football champion and eight total players who were on a title team at some point in their college career. In the five previous years with Roseman handling the draft, they didn’t take any players on the previous year’s champion. Jalen Hurts and K’Von Wallace were the only players the Eagles drafted with a national championship on their resumé during that stretch.

The Eagles targeted DeVonta Smith and Landon Dickerson as culture-setters amid a coaching change in 2021. The last two drafts, Roseman said, have been a byproduct of the Alabama pair working out so well.

The benefit of film against NFL-caliber players is a major factor, too.

“You see those guys play in the biggest games, on the biggest stage against the best competition, and so it’s easier,” Roseman said. “It’s hard enough when you have all the factors going into a draft pick. We talked about it a lot. You’ve got guys coming from a college town to the NFL for the first time, don’t have classes, they’re on their own.

“It takes the part out of the big jump in competition because the guys that they’re playing against are the guys that are playing on Sundays.”

Before Super Bowl LVII, Roseman discussed the major lessons learned from the 2018 offseason and the steep decline the team experienced.

The missteps were plentiful, but squandered draft picks and overcommitting to aging veterans were the major factors. Roseman identified the eventual blowback that came from trying to “run it back” in 2018 and conceded he “could have done better” managing the team during that stretch.

The Eagles are in much better shape with draft assets than they were five years ago. They went into 2018 still paying for the trades to move up to draft Carson Wentz and made just five picks that offseason and the following one. This year, they made seven picks and are in line to have 10 selections next year largely thanks to the four compensatory picks they are due.

A Super Bowl run next season will still rely heavily on players like Jason Kelce, Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham, and Darius Slay avoiding steep regression. But the Eagles found a potential replacement for each player aside from Kelce in this year’s draft. Even Steen could play a role in the Eagles’ life after Kelce. He could either beat out Cam Jurgens for the starting right guard job this summer to keep Jurgens as Kelce’s understudy or eventually facilitate Jurgens returning to center as his replacement at guard in a few years.

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