Thumbs up or down: Eagles beat writers weigh in on second-round pick Landon Dickerson

For those among you concerned about Landon Dickerson’s long-term durability, I have one thing to say: Risk it for the biscuit. Sure, Sidney Jones had a similar risk profile, but sometimes the process is more important than the results. Jones was another player pegged as a first-round talent only to slide into the second because of injury concern.

Jones battled numerous injuries and frequently looked like he didn’t trust his body to hold up on the field during his time with the Eagles. For whatever reason, whether it’s a clean medical check or a belief in Dickerson’s mental toughness, the Eagles don’t believe this will happen a second time. No one knows whether they’ll be right.

If Dickerson can recover from his second torn ACL and play a full season for the first time in at least four years, the Eagles will have hit a home run. He’s a big, powerful interior lineman with a track record of playing through the whistle. If you’ve watched Dickerson play, you’ve probably seen him make a couple pancake blocks finished off with something extra.

Dickerson could give the Eagles a dominant interior offensive linemen, something that would help with the looming transition away from Jason Kelce and Brandon Brooks in the next few seasons. The team could have gone with a potential Day 1 starting cornerback like Asante Samuel Jr., but the upside play with Dickerson is greater. There’s risk involved, and Sidney Jones comes to mind, but remember: Drafting scared led the Eagles to miss out on DK Metcalf two years ago. It goes both ways.

It’s a reluctant thumbs up from me. I’m not reluctant about Dickerson’s ability or leadership qualities, I understand why the Eagles like him. I am very reluctant to endorse the idea that a player who has undergone two knee surgeries (to the same knee) and a surgical procedure to each of his ankles in the past five years is going to have a long, productive career. I’m also reluctant to endorse the notion that acquiring a potential leader for the offensive line a few years down the road is better than finding a good young starting cornerback for a corner group led by 30-year-old Darius Slay with not much of note behind him.

I’ve said since the draft that Dickerson might be the key to how this group of draftees is perceived. If he becomes the All-Pro the Eagles envision, it’s tough to fault them. If he doesn’t, and the big hole at corner continues to gape, that’s a problem that will resonate.

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Why is my thumbs up at all? Dickerson really is good. Much better than the 37th overall spot would indicate. In theory, I like taking this sort of gamble, just as I like going for it on fourth down. I endorsed the Sidney Jones risk at the time. Sidney’s problem ultimately seemed to be a loss of confidence from suffering repeated muscle injuries after the healing of his Achilles, and from playing for Jim Schwartz. I don’t think Dickerson will have a problem in either of those areas. He’s mentally tough. I’m sure offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland is ecstatic about having him.

Dickerson was the Eagles’ most controversial selection during the draft for a number of reasons. The most prominent issue raised in taking the Alabama offensive lineman with the 37th overall pick was his injury history. He’s torn both ACLs, has had season-ending surgery on both ankles, and each injury occurred in college. He may not be medically cleared by the season opener because of the second knee surgery.

Howie Roseman conceded the risk but said the potential reward of getting a first-round talent was worth the gamble. We’ve heard these words from the Eagles general manager before, of course, and not just in relation to Sidney Jones. The evaluation error with Jones had more to do with personality than with his health. Dickerson, by all accounts, should be able to handle playing under the Philly microscope.

But four major injuries are a lot, and even if the Eagles’ medical staff believes they aren’t chronic or that Dickerson isn’t injury prone, can the staff be trusted at this point? Plenty of teams still had the lineman on their boards, but would they have pulled the trigger so early? I spoke to a senior scout after the pick, and he said his team loved Dickerson as a second- rounder.

“He’s a culture changer,” the scout said. “He will be a great successor to [Jason] Kelce when he retires as the leader for as long as he can play. The injuries are well documented, but we didn’t have him off our board.”

One GM said his team had high grades on Dickerson as well, but they dropped him to the third round. Another said that his medical staff wouldn’t sign off on the 22-year-old and that he wasn’t on the team’s board at all. But from what I can gather, most teams still had Dickerson as a Day 2 possibility.

The other issue that has been raised is that Roseman passed on prospects who could fill immediate needs such as cornerback, safety or defensive tackle. My guess is that if Georgia cornerback Tyson Campbell was still on the board, the Eagles would have pounced. But there were a few other highly-regarded corners available — Kelvin Joseph and Asante Samuel Jr. — and Roseman deferred. Alabama defensive tackle Christian Barmore and safety Trevon Moehrig were there as well.

My reasons for questioning the pick have little to do with this argument. The Eagles have holes up and down their roster. They’re unlikely to compete for a championship next season. There’s little reason to push a need, especially when there is time to add bodies. Sure, Roseman could be criticized for failing to address corner in free agency, but the draft should be for stockpiling as many talented players as possible.

And there’s little to dispute the notion that Dickerson is very talented. He started at all five offensive line positions in college, but he’s projected to play either guard or center in the NFL. My guess is he’s the top reserve at all three interior spots once healthy this season, and next year will start at one of the three — if healthy. It’s a fairly significant if, which is why I can’t give the selection a thumbs up.

Last year, Eagles general manager Howie Roseman swore that his days of gambling on players with significant injury histories was over. He had been burned one too many times and had learned his lesson.

“The last two years, injuries have really hurt our football team,” Roseman said then. “Hope is not a strategy when it comes to injuries. When you bring in guys that are injured, it obviously increases the risk that they will get hurt again.”

And yet, there he was Friday, selecting uber-talented and oft-injured Alabama offensive lineman Landon Dickerson with the 37th pick in the draft.

Dickerson’s talent is unquestioned. Every scout I talked to acknowledged that if the 6-foot-6, 333-pounder had a clean injury history, he probably would’ve been a top 15 pick in the draft.

NFL Network analyst Brian Baldinger, whose opinion of offensive linemen I greatly respect, compared Dickerson to All-Pro guard Quenton Nelson.

“He’s as close to Quenton as I’ve seen the last three years,” Baldy said. “He just wants to be great. Nobody knocks more people down in college football than this guy. He’s as nasty as they come.

“[Nick] Saban said he’s the best leader they ever had down there [at Alabama]. He’s a culture-builder. If you’re going in to play the Cowboys, you want this guy leading you out of the tunnel.”

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But you don’t want him leading you out of the tunnel on crutches, and that’s why I have problems with this pick. After saying he was done counting on injury risks, Roseman took a guy with the 37th pick in the draft that has had four major injuries, including three that required surgery, in the last five years.

In 2016, he suffered a season-ending ACL injury seven games into the season. In 2017, he injured his ankle after four games and needed surgery.

In 2018, he suffered another season-ending ankle injury after just two games. He stayed healthy in 2019 and was an All-SEC beast. And he dominated again last year until tearing his other ACL in the SEC Championship Game. He’s still recovering from that injury.

I didn’t give this selection a thumbs down because Dickerson doesn’t play a speed position like cornerback Sidney Jones, who was recovering from an Achilles tear when the Eagles gambled on him in the second round in 2017.

And I sort of agree with what Roseman said the other day about not wanting to always be risk-averse. You need to be smart, but there are times when you also need to take some chances and dare to be great. I’m just not sure this is one of those times he should have done it, especially given the team’s obvious need for a cornerback.