25 things to know about the NFL draft before the Eagles are on the clock

In four of the five drafts since winning Super Bowl LII, Eagles general manager Howie Roseman has traded up, down, or out of the first round. The only time he stayed put was in 2020 when he selected Jalen Reagor, and we all know how that went.

But he has since erased that hiccup with the selection of DeVonta Smith (No. 10 overall in 2021) and the acquisition of A.J. Brown.

There’s a lot of the usual buzz around the top quarterbacks, including one who was born and briefly lived in the area. Here’s a quick look at some of the top players and other fun stuff in this year’s draft:

1. Presumptive No. 1 pick Bryce Young was born in 2001 at Lankenau Hospital in Wynnewood. He sort of attended Game 3 of the NBA Finals that year between the Sixers and Los Angeles Lakers — Young’s mother was pregnant with him at the time.

» READ MORE: NFL Draft odds, predictions: Kentucky QB Levis makes big move in No. 1 pick market

2. Alabama hasn’t had a player picked No. 1 overall in the NFL draft since 1948. Quarterback Harry Gilmer, who was taken that year by Washington, is the only Tide player to be taken No. 1 overall.

3. Ohio State has a chance to become the first school to have a quarterback (C.J. Stroud), a wide receiver (Jaxon Smith-Njigba), and multiple offensive linemen (Paris Johnson Jr. and Dawand Jones) taken in the first round of the same draft in the common era.

4. The 6-foot-8, 374-pound Jones could have played Division I basketball. In fact, that was his first love while he was in high school. “I imagined seeing myself at Rupp Arena,” he told the Columbus Dispatch, “not the Big House or Ohio Stadium.”

5. Trivia time: In the 56 drafts since the NFL-AFL merger led to one draft in 1967, a quarterback has been selected No. 1 overall 26 times, easily the most of any position. (Defensive end is second at 12.) But only four of those 26 QBs won a Super Bowl for the team which drafted him. Name ‘em (Answer below).

6. Northwestern offensive lineman Peter Skoronski, who is projected in some mock drafts to be taken by the Eagles at No. 10, attended Maine South High School in Park Ridge, Ill. The school’s notable alums include former Washington defensive lineman Dave Butz, speed skating Hall of Famer Nancy Swider, and former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

» READ MORE: Eagles mock draft 2.0: Offensive tackle Peter Skoronski is an intriguing top pick

7. The most notable Northwestern player drafted by the Eagles is probably cornerback Irv Cross, who spent six seasons and made two Pro Bowls with the Birds before he became the first Black sports analyst on national television for CBS.

8. The Miami Dolphins were stripped of their first-round pick (No. 21 overall) when the NFL found out they were having impermissible contact with Tom Brady and Sean Payton. Owner Stephen Ross and vice chairman Bruce Beal tried to lure Brady, who was with the New England Patriots at the time, to play for Miami and become a limited owner of the franchise. Uh, that’s tampering. The Dolphins also spoke with Payton, a Super Bowl-winning coach, shortly after he retired from New Orleans without requesting permission from the Saints who still held his rights. That’s also tampering.

9. There will be 259 selections in this year’s draft. The Eagles, as of Monday afternoon, have two picks in the first round (Nos. 10 and 30), one in the second (No. 62), one in the third (No. 94), and two in the seventh (Nos. 219 and 248).

10. The New York Giants have 10 picks, but six of them are in the fifth round or later. Washington has eight selections. Dallas has seven. In the first round, Washington has No. 16, the Giants No. 25, and Dallas No. 26.

11. Diminutive Boston College wide receiver Zay Flowers (5-9, 182 pounds) worked out with Antonio Brown and Geno Smith during COVID-19 quarantine in the summer of 2020. Flowers had always modeled his game after Brown (5-10, 185 pounds), who was sensational in his prime.

12. It’ll be interesting to see where Georgia defensive tackle Jalen Carter gets taken. He might be the most talented player on the board, but character questions arose after his involvement in a January race in which two people in another car were killed. Carter pleaded no contest to charges of reckless driving (a misdemeanor) and was given 12 months probation, 50 hours of community service, and a $1,000 fine.

13. DraftKings has the over/under on where Carter goes at 6.5.

14. Carolina has had the No. 1 overall pick only one other time, and has only picked in the top-five three times: Cam Newton (No. 1, 2011), Julius Peppers (No. 2, 2002), and Kerry Collins (No. 5, 1995). Collins was the first player they ever drafted.

15. The Panthers acquired the top pick from Chicago, which hasn’t picked first since 1947. The Bears received two first-rounders, two seconds, and wide receiver D.J. Moore, a graduate of Imhotep Charter, in the deal. Chicago’s first selection is now at No. 9, one spot ahead of the Eagles.

16. Texas’ Bijan Robinson is projected to be the first running back selected. He’s already a millionaire thanks to NIL deals that include a Lamborghini dealership in Austin. He’s also the face of Bijan Mustardson, the gourmet mustard that goes for around $8 a pop for a 9-ounce jar — except you have to buy two for $15.90. Robinson also sold special bottles of mustard with his autograph and stats from each game last season for $75 per, but they all sold out.

» READ MORE: Eagles draft primer: Bijan Robinson or the field? Breaking down running back prospects

17. A 10-ounce bottle of Grey Poupon goes for about $3.99. No autographs, however.

18. Cornerback Christian Gonzalez will likely be the first defensive back out of Oregon taken in the first round in 27 years. The Saints took Alex Molden in 1996 with the No. 11 pick. Eddie George (No. 14), Marvin Harrison (No. 19), Ray Lewis (No. 26), Brian Dawkins (No. 61), and Terrell Owens (No. 89) are among those who were taken after Molden that year. Yikes.

19. Gonzalez (6-1, 197 pounds) ran a 4.38 in the 40 at the Scouting Combine. His sister, Melissa, is a world-class hurdler who represented Colombia at the 2020 Olympics (staged in 2021). She’s also married to David Blough, a backup NFL quarterback currently with the Arizona Cardinals. “I remember playing with him when I was like 10 years old,” said Christian Gonzalez, 20, “just running around and throwing the ball. It’s all come full circle and it’s been great to have him in my corner.”

20. The first NFL draft, in 1936, was held in Philadelphia at the Ritz-Carlton, which was then at Broad and Walnut. The location is a shuttered Wawa today. Next year’s draft is in Detroit.

21. Trivia answer. The four quarterbacks drafted No. 1 overall to win a Super Bowl for the team which drafted them are Troy Aikman, Terry Bradshaw, Peyton Manning, and Drew Bledsoe, who was a backup to Brady when New England won its first championship. John Elway, Eli Manning, Jim Plunkett, Matthew Stafford, and David Carr (he backed up Eli in Super Bowl XLVI) won Super Bowls after they left their initial franchise.

» READ MORE: Ranking the top 10 Eagles draft picks of the Howie Roseman era

22. DraftKings has lines on the number of players drafted in the first round among the top conferences. Heads-up, though, the odds are highly juiced to the over. But they have the over/under for the ACC at 3.5, the Big 10 at 8.5, the Big 12 at 4.5, and the SEC at 11.5.

23. ESPN analyst Matt Miller is among those who say Utah tight end Dalton Kincaid compares to Zach Ertz. NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah said Kincaid is more explosive than Ertz when Ertz was drafted by the Eagles in 2013.

24. Penn State’s Joey Porter Jr., another cornerback expected to go in the first round, already has NFL experience. He used to hang around the locker room while his dad was an All-Pro linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers. “I remember as a kid I did one-on-one against Antonio Brown, so that was a nice treat,” said Porter, Penn State’s defensive MVP last season. “I know he wasn’t going 100 percent, but just to be able to line up against him was something special.”

25. Penn State has never had a defensive back drafted in the first round. Only three – Jaquan Brisker (2022), Bryan Scott (2003), and Kim Herring (1997) — were second-round picks. All three guys were safeties.