Eagles draft DT Marlon Tuipulotu, DE Tarron Jackson in sixth, LB JaCoby Stevens with first pick in seventh round

The third day of the NFL draft began for the Eagles with the selection of Texas Tech corner Zech McPhearson, 123rd overall, in the fourth round.

McPhearson is not the big name some fans hoped for, given the dire need in their team’s secondary, but he was NFL Network draft expert Daniel Jeremiah’s 85th-best player in his ranking of the top 100. At 5-foot-11, 191 pounds, Jeremiah feels McPhearson might be better suited to the slot than playing outside, which is the Eagles’ bigger problem.

He began his college career at Penn State. All eight McPhearson siblings played college sports, and their parents were athletic, as well.

With the 150th pick, the Eagles added Memphis’ Kenneth Gainwell. The 5-11, 195-pound running back has been productive as a receiver out of the backfield during his time with the Tigers, catching 51 passes for 610 yards in 2019 before opting out last season. He is a Mississippi native, and is Fletcher Cox’s cousin.

With the first of their sixth-round picks, the Eagles took Southern California defensive tackle Marlon Tuipulotu. This was said to be a shallow draft overall, most especially at defensive tackle, but many analysts had Tuipulotu (6-2, 307) going quite a bit sooner. There has been speculation about unspecified medical concerns.

Two picks after Tuipulotu, the Eagles continued to take fliers on defensive linemen, drafting Coastal Carolina defensive end Tarron Jackson. The 6-2, 255-pound edge rusher had 42 sacks in his four-year career, but there are questions about his success translating with such a steep jump in quality of competition coming.

The Eagles’ first of two seventh-round picks was JaCoby Stevens, an LSU safety the Eagles apparently project as a hybrid linebacker, at 6-1, 212 pounds. Ten picks later, they took Tulane edge Patrick Johnson. The team announced Johnson (6-3, 255) as a linebacker, meaning a position switch is likely in the cards for him.

Gainwell said in a Zoom interview after the selection that he has long been an Eagles fan, dating back to when he followed Donovan McNabb and Michael Vick, before the Eagles drafted Cox in 2012.

Gainwell sat out 2020 after losing four family members to COVID-19, including an uncle.

Nick Sirianni has a track record of using running backs heavily in the passing game, with Colts running back Nyheim Hines being the latest example during Sirianni’s time as Indy’s offensive coordinator the last three years. Gainwell could fill a similar role as a complementary receiving back behind Miles Sanders right away.

The Eagles traded a sixth (225) and a seventh (240) to Washington for a fifth-rounder in next year’s much deeper draft.