Reuben Frank and Dave Zangaro discuss the Eagles’ decision to trade back from pick No. 6 to 12 in the 2021 NFL Draft.
For weeks, Eagles fans debated over whether their team should try to take Ja’Marr Chase or Kyle Pitts with the No. 6 pick.
Then the Eagles traded down to 12 on Friday.
That brings us to today, which is a tough day for Eagles fans who might be following updates from the pro days at LSU and Florida.
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Because Chase and Pitts are putting on a show and the Eagles likely won’t have a chance to draft either of them sitting at No. 12. Oh well.
Of course, this doesn’t mean the Eagles’ trade wasn’t a good one. They did pick up a 2022 first-round pick with the trade down and they got some real value back from the Dolphins. We won’t really know if they won or lost this trade for several years.
But on Wednesday? It hurts.
NFL
Kyle Pitts
The giant tight end from Florida might just be the best overall player in the draft. Earlier this week, NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah ranked Pitts as the No. 2 overall prospect in this class behind Trevor Lawrence but Jeremiah previously said he thought there was a strong case to be made that Pitts was the top prospect.
As if we already didn’t know it from his career at Florida — Pitts had 43 catches for 770 yards and 12 touchdowns in 8 games in 2020 — he’s an absolute freak.
That wingspan is insane. Pitts is basically half pterodactyl. That wingspan is longer than any receiver or tight end in the last 20 years, according to PFF.
And then there’s this:
That 40-yard dash time for a guy who is 6-6 and 245 pounds is absolutely bananas.
Ja’Marr Chase
Not to be outdone, Chase is putting on an absolute show at LSU too. Sure, maybe you should take some of these pro day numbers with a grain of salt, but there’s no doubt that even if these numbers aren’t exact, they’re still really impressive.
Chase didn’t play during the 2020 season but it looks like he didn’t exactly take a year off either.
And in 2019, Chase was the best receiver on a team that saw quarterback Joe Burrow and fellow receiver Justin Jefferson go in the first round. That season, Chase had 84 catches for 1,780 yards and 20 touchdowns.
A report from SI.com’s Albert Breer earlier this week indicated that the Eagles moved out of the No. 6 pick with the growing understanding that the Bengals were going to pick Chase at No. 5 to reunite with Burrow and he wouldn’t be available at No. 6. If that happens, maybe it’ll make the trade down hurt a little less.
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