Last year was a bit unusual for Eagles GM Howie Roseman in the NFL Draft. Instead of making a trade, he sat patiently and drafted Quinyon Mitchell at No. 22 overall.
But it’s a new year.
And NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah thinks this could be a time for Roseman to move up in the draft, especially because the Eagles are projected to have 20 picks in the next two years.
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SIGN UP HERE Jeremiah was on the latest Takeoff with John Clark to talk about what his former boss, Roseman, might do in the upcoming draft with all these picks in his pocket.
“I think he’d move up,” Jeremiah said. “I think there’s so many people that want to get out in this draft, that are trading back. What has Howie done his entire career? He’s zigged when everyone else has zagged. And he’s going to be able to see if we have a premier player start to slip, man, they’re armed. They’re armed and ready to go. I’m sure we get to it because we always talk about what could happen there and what the predictions might be.
“It’s impossible to make a prediction of who’s going to be there at 32 but I will make a prediction that if … for some reason people overthink Jalon Walker like they overthought Nolan Smith. ‘Oh, he’s not big enough and the size.’ If he starts to drift and drop, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, they could just go do the exact same thing all over again.’”
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While there’s a chance Roseman could trade up to land a top player on Thursday night, there’s also a trade-down scenario.
Jeremiah said that there’s not much difference from his 14th highest-graded player to his 38th, so a move back and then multiple moves up could be a way to maximize the strength of this year’s draft.
“If they traded back, I think it would be, ‘OK, we’re going to trade back, we’re going to amass more picks and then we’re going to trade back up,’” Jeremiah explained. “I could see them trying to maximize Day 2. So maybe you’re sandwiching in Round 2. You’re trading back to get some Round 2 picks and then you’re trading back up from Day 3 to get more Day 2 picks. This would be a great draft to have four or five guys on Day 2. That would be perfect for where the value is.”
As it stands now, the Eagles have one pick in each of the first four rounds and then four picks in the fifth. Jeremiah’s point was that moving down would amass more Day 3 (Rounds 4-7) picks but the Eagles roster is so good that some of those players wouldn’t be able to make the team.
So Jeremiah’s idea would be to move back but then package those picks to move up again and get out of Day 3 up into Day 2 for the second and third rounds.
One other thought from Jeremiah: The potential to trade for a proven commodity.
“The other thing is, with all these picks, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Howie trade for a veteran,” he said. “Use one of these picks and see what’s available on the veteran market. So you can address the defense a couple different ways.”
It should be a fun three days later this week.