The Eagles will report for OTAs next month and the veterans will be joined by a brand-new crop of rookies.
After entering this draft with eight picks, the Eagles ended up taking a total of 10 players throughout the three days, with eight selections on Day 3.
Here’s a reminder of the 2025 draft class:
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SIGN UP HERE Round 1-31: Jihaad Campbell, LB, Alabama
Round 2-64: Andrew Mukuba, S, Texas
Round 4-111: Ty Robinson, DT, Nebraska
Round 5-145: Mac McWilliams, CB, UCF
Round 5-161: Smael Mondon Jr., LB, Georgia
Round 5-168: Drew Kendall, C/G, Boston College
Round 6-181: Kyle McCord, QB, Syracuse
Round 6-191: Myles Hinton, OT, Michigan
Round 6-207: Cameron Williams, OT, Texas
Round 6-209: Antwaun Powell-Ryland, Edge, Virginia Tech
And here are 10 leftovers from a busy draft weekend:
1. Day 3 strategy
Despite having a really talented roster already, the Eagles took a ton of players on Day 3. They entered Saturday with six picks but after a couple trade downs ended up with eight players. That seems a bit surprising given the talent already on the roster. One strategy could have been to target players and trade up, but the Eagles decided on a different strategy. With a lot of prospects they graded similarly on the board, GM Howie Roseman opted to have as many dart throws as possible on his favorite day of the draft.
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“We felt like on the third day, that was the right strategy for us,” Roseman said. “At this time, we want to increase competition on this team. We felt like if we took multiple darts at positions that we liked players at, it increased our chance on hitting one of those players. So, it was based on the board. That was a big reason why we traded back last night, was because we felt like there was a sweet spot here that we can get a bunch of guys that we had similarly graded, and we feel fortunate that that's how today worked out.”
There was another interesting note about Roseman’s Day 3 strategy. Ultimately, if Day 3 picks end up being viable backup and special teams contributors, that’s a fine outcome. But that’s not their goal when they make these selections, Roseman said.
“When we look at the later stages of the draft, we're shooting for starters,” he explained. “We have this meeting this morning and I tell our scouts all the time, we can find backups. We could find backups in August, we can find backups on our team. We want to find starters. And so, if that means that we take six guys – I don’t know, how many guys did we take today? I mean, you take eight guys, and you hit on three starters, I mean, you are smoking. You are doing a really good job. So, we're going to take shots on guys who have traits and we're looking for guys that can make a difference.”
So Roseman’s philosophy on Day 3 is pretty clear. It’s a numbers game. The more players they pick with plus traits, the better their odds are of hitting it big.
2. Friends of Trot
Second-round safety Drew Mukuba finished up his college career at Texas in 2024 but he spent his first three years at Clemson. Guess who his roommate was freshman year: Jeremiah Trotter Jr.
“It was kind of cool for everything to go full circle and come back, and now I'm going to be on the same defense with Trot and on same team as Will Shipley, so it's amazing,” Mukuba said. “Already have people that I already know here, kind of help me and guide me when I get here to get everything figured out.”
And Mukuba isn’t the only Eagles draft pick this year who has a history with the second-year linebacker. Before Trotter went to Clemson, he starred at St. Joseph’s Prep, where he was teammates with 2025 sixth-round quarterback Kyle McCord.
Trotter and McCord were teammates for four years at the Prep and had great success together.
“He reached out right away,” McCord said. “He’s super excited. Just like the old high school days together. He’s excited to play together again. And I’ll use him as a resource. Obviously, he went through this process last year being a rookie in the organization. Picking his brain about what he wishes he would have known going into the whole process, just advice. I think it is comforting knowing that you’re going in there with a familiar face and a guy that you grew up playing with.”
3. Stop with the prank calls
The Shedeur Sanders story gained another layer during the weekend when we learned that he and some other top draft prospects were prank called during the draft.
At least one Eagles player got some prank calls too.
Sixth-round pick McCord said he got prank calls from 609 and 215 numbers throughout the day on Saturday. So when the Eagles actually called to tell him they were drafting him with the No. 181 pick, he didn’t expect to hear Roseman on the other end.
As of Saturday afternoon, McCord hadn’t found out who prank called him earlier in the day.
“I don’t know,” he said. “They acted like they were a few different teams. It’s pretty easy to quickly figure out who’s not being serious when you hear them laughing and smirking. Obviously, you’re anxious to get that phone call and you never know who it’s going to be. I’m just happy the one I did get from the 215 area code was legit.”
4. Nebraska —> Philly
Eagles center Cam Jurgens seemed pretty excited on Saturday when he found out the Eagles were drafting his Nebraska teammate Ty Robinson in the fourth round at pick No. 111.
“Cam was a year older than me when I came in,” Robinson said. “I got to see him grow up and learn the position at center. We got to battle against each other each and every day. We were pretty close. He’s been back here for a little bit just doing some workouts, doing offseason stuff. I just kept joking with him. I said, ‘Make sure you put in a good word for me when you go back.’ He’s like, ‘Oh trust me, I am.’ Me and him, I’m super excited to be back playing with him and going against him every day.”
5. Can Kendall play guard?
Despite playing exclusively center during his college career at Boston College, Drew Kendall was officially listed as a center/guard when the Eagles drafted him in the fifth round.
And Kendall, who played guard before going to BC, thinks he has the versatility to play guard in the NFL too.
“I’ve always tried to pride myself on that versatility,” Kendall said. “I played all center at BC but played a little bit of guard beforehand my first year there. That’s something I’m continuously working on in the offseasons, making sure I’m getting my snaps and playing center but also, at the same time, getting in that two-point stance and playing some guard.”
Kendall (6-4, 308) is confident in his ability to play guard and we’ll see if he’ll get the opportunity to cross-train this spring and summer. He said that versatility was an emphasis during his pre-draft process.
“I think that’s a big thing for all interior guys,” Kendall said. “I think it’s difficult to just be one position. Even tackle, you gotta play both sides. I think that was a big thing coming out of BC that I was going to have to continuously work on. I didn’t quite get the amount of reps beforehand playing some guard. Constantly working on it now.”
6. Mac’s competitiveness
During his Zoom call with Eagles reporters on Saturday, fifth-round pick Mac McWilliams kept bringing up his competitiveness. He said one of the biggest reasons he transferred from UAB to UCF in 2024 was to play against a higher level of competition. And he really thrived at the Senior Bowl on the field with plenty of Day 1 and Day 2 picks.
So I asked McWilliams about the origin of that competitiveness and you can imagine the Eagles would love his answer.
“Definitely always been a part of my DNA,” he said. “I played receiver all my life growing up until my 11th grade year of high school. When I was at receiver, I always wanted to compete with the best DBs. Now that I switched roles, I always want to compete with the best receiver.
“I’d say a little bit of it comes from my high school coach (former Pine Forest High School head coach) Kadetrix Marcus. He’s coached guys like me, Devon Witherspoon and Martin Emerson and he just instilled that grit into us from Day 1 workouts to the last game of the season for everybody. He’d just make sure that if anything went down, we’d always know hard work and dedication. That was the main goal. If you wanted anything in life, it was going to be by hard work. Nothing was given to us.”
7. Do bloodlines matter?
Two of the Eagles’ Day 3 offensive linemen — Drew Kendall and Myles Hinton — are the sons of former NFL offensive linemen. Pete Kendall played 13 years and 189 games in the NFL for the Seahawks, Cardinals, Jets and Washington. Chris Hinton played 13 years and 177 games in the NFL for the Colts, Falcons and Vikings.
Do bloodlines matter when drafting players?
When asked that question on Saturday, Roseman didn’t shoot down the idea.
“Well, it's certainly part of the player profile,” Roseman said. “Coach and I joke a lot of times about that. Certainly, genetics are part of who we all are and having pro athletes as your parents usually helps. It's hard to play in the National Football League. [It takes a] special kind of talent to play in the National Football League and we see that every day and how talented our players are. So, when they come from that, it usually means that the game's not going to be too big for them. They've been around it since they were really little.
“We see that with our family. They get the opportunity to be around locker rooms and players and so when they come to this big stage, they've been around it. And so, certainly, that's not why we're drafting players. We’re drafting them on their ability, but it's helpful.”
8. Another Bulldog
When the Eagles drafted Smael Mondon Jr. in the fifth round, he became the eighth Georgia defensive player on their roster. As a linebacker, Mondon will once again share a position room with Nakobe Dean.
“Me and Nakobe been close since like my freshman year since I got there,” Mondon said. “We really kept in touch ever since. And throughout the whole draft process, Nakobe was one of the people I’d hit up and ask for advice and just talking to him about it. Nakobe helped me a lot through the draft process.”
Mondon was at Georgia in 2021 but was a reserve. He didn’t become a starting linebacker until 2022 after both Dean and Quay Walker left for the NFL.
9. Sirianni wastes no time
Nick Sirianni has a bunch of favorite sayings and one he kept going back to during the Super Bowl season in 2024 was “tough, detailed, together.” He used it as a mantra. So this answer from first-round pick Jihaad Campbell, when asked about joining a winning culture, caught my attention.
“I think it's all about my process and part of my journey. I just came from Alabama, so that's literally the same program/organization that I came from. And another thing that I want to hit on that Coach Sirianni was talking about, too, was ‘tough, detailed and together.’ That was a big thing that stood out to me and understanding what that meant and how he wants this organization to be ran. The standard, everybody just playing together, just being with each other and everybody just connecting.”
Campbell is already being indoctrinated in the Eagles’ way.
10. Usage of 30 visits
In recent years, it has been really valuable to track the 30 prospect visits to the NovaCare Complex because the Eagles have drafted a lot of those players. But that wasn’t the case this year.
The Eagles didn’t select any of the known 30-visit players this year.
“Everyone we bring in for top 30 (visits) is for a reason,” Roseman said. “Sometimes we're trying to get more information on guys. Sometimes we're trying in that vein to try to get to know them better. Sometimes we want them to meet someone in particular.”