The good, bad and futures of Eagles' 2020 draft class
Looking back at the rookie season for the Eagles' 2020 draft class and ahead at their futures. By Dave Zangaro
The Eagles drafted 10 players in 2020, making it the team’s biggest draft class since 2011.
Now that we’re through that miserable 2020 season, let’s recap the rookie seasons all 10 draft picks had.
We’ll start off with the first round pick:
The Good: Reagor’s season started off on a high note. He returned early from a shoulder injury and caught a 55-yard pass in the opener. Overall, Reagor caught 31 passes for 396 yards and a touchdown. He also showed off his play-making ability on a 73-yard punt return touchdown against the Packers. He reached 20.84 mph on that return.
The Bad: Reagor got hurt before the season, tore his UCL in Week 2 and suffered a concussion in Week 17. So he had three significant injuries in his rookie season. Reagor’s most productive game came in Week 1 with that one long catch. After Reagor returned from injury, receivers coach Aaron Moorehead said Reagor was due for a breakout game, but it never happened. Meanwhile, Justin Jefferson, who was taken with the 22nd pick, set the NFL record for rookie receiving yards. Yikes.
The Future: Despite a forgettable rookie season, there were some flashes of explosion from Reagor and there were times when you really saw why the Eagles liked him so much. But going forward, he needs to be more consistent and he needs to stay healthy. Even if the Eagles use the No. 6 pick in 2021 on a receiver, Reagor still figures to be a Day 1 starter in 2021. Maybe he isn’t Jefferson and maybe he’ll never be Jefferson, but it’s way too early to call Reagor a bust.
The Good: There’s no denying the spark Hurts provided to the Eagles’ offense after he was inserted into the lineup. In his very first NFL start in Week 13, Hurts led the Eagles to an upset over the Saints. And in his next start against Arizona, he had his best statistical day, throwing for 338 yards with 3 touchdowns and adding another score on the ground. His legs make him a true dual-threat QB and he averaged 68 yards per game on the ground in his starts.
The Bad: Although they might have pulled out a win if Hurts stayed in the game in Week 17, the Eagles went 1-3 in Hurts’ four starts and many of the same issues the offense faced with Carson Wentz at quarterback began to surface with Hurts. The scariest statistic from his four starts is that Hurts completed just 69 of 133 pass attempts (51.88%). That is not good enough.
The Future: It’s really up in the air right now. First, the Eagles have to figure out the situation with Wentz. Is he back? Are they trading him? Is he back as the starter or in a competition? Until the Eagles figure that out, Hurts will have to wait and see. He did some good things in his time as a starter in 2020 but it’s way too early to say whether or not he can be a franchise guy and it’s way too early to know what his ceiling in the NFL can be.
The Good: The raw linebacker out of Colorado developed into a pretty significant special teams contributor, playing 177 snaps (42%) on teams. His natural speed and athleticism showed up at times. He didn’t play much on defense but there were moments where his speed showed up there too.
The Bad: It appears that Taylor is just as raw as everyone thought. Even with the Eagles’ struggles at the linebacker position, the third-round pick played just 32 defensive snaps all season and 18 of them came against the Browns, who were using big personnel and running the ball. And while he played most of his snaps on special teams, he was whistled for three penalties: two illegal blocks and one running into the kicker.
The Future: We always knew Taylor was going to be a project so I don’t think his slow start means he won’t develop into a player. But he’ll need to really improve; there’s a long way to go. Even given the Eagles’ hesitance to allocate resources into the linebacker position, it’s hard to imagine Taylor being a starter next season.
The Good: The rookie from Clemson ended up playing in 15 games and started three, including two in the last three weeks. He had 21 tackles and a fumble recovery. In the season finale, Wallace played all 63 snaps and had 6 tackles (5 solo). He also became a special teams contributor, playing 219 snaps (52%) with 6 special teams tackles.
The Bad: He didn’t really play that much. He finished his rookie season with 202 snaps (18 percent) and was buried on the depth chart behind the starters at safety as well as Will Parks and Marcus Epps at times. His worst coverage performance came against the 49ers in Week 4 when he was tasked with covering George Kittle. He also missed four tackles on the season.
The Future: The safety position is very much up in the air going into 2021, which is really good news for Wallace. Parks was cut mid-season, Jalen Mills is going to be a free agent and Rodney McLeod is coming off a season-ending ACL injury. So even if the Eagles draft a safety or sign one in free agency, Wallace is in position to earn a much bigger role — and maybe even be a starter — in Year 2.
The Good: Driscoll wasn’t expected to play much but then he ended up getting the start in place of Lane Johnson in Week 1. In all, Driscoll started four games and played significant snaps in two others. And he played really well. He gave up a total of three sacks and 18 pressures but really held his own. He was a solid tackle as a rookie.
The Bad: Driscoll suffered an ankle injury in the season opener and his season ended early when he suffered an MCL sprain in the win over New Orleans. He missed the chance to get three more starts under his belt because of that MCL injury. He was pretty good in pass protection but needs to work on his run blocking skills.
The Future: We expect Johnson to return as the right tackle in 2021 and either Jordan Mailata or Andre Dillard will start at left tackle. But Driscoll will be a really valuable backup and role player next season. Remember, he also has some guard in his background so he’s like the new Halapoulivaati Vaitai, a guy who can really play a bunch of different positions in a pinch. Teams need those guys.
The Good: The Eagles had a total of four 50-yard passes in 2020 and Hightower caught two of them. He had them in back-to-back weeks — a 50-yarder against Baltimore and a 59-yarder against the Giants. And for a three-game stretch earlier in the season, Hightower led all Eagles’ receivers in snaps.
The Bad: The production just wasn’t there. Hightower ended up with 167 receiving yards but caught just 10 passes out of 29 targets. His catch percentage of 34.5% was the worst in the NFL among players who were targeted at least 10 times. Hightower had four drops and his drop rate of 28.6% was the highest in the NFL among qualified players. He was inactive for three of the Eagles’ last four games.
The Future: The Eagles liked Hightower enough to play him a ton early but he clearly needs a lot of work to be an NFL receiver. You just hope playing him this much early and letting him fail won’t hurt him in the long run. The Eagles don’t know what they have with Hightower but they can’t go into 2021 relying on him.
The Good: Bradley played over double the amount of defensive snaps that third-round pick Davion Taylor played. And when he was out there on defense, he was solid. He ended up with 15 tackles on defense in 2020. But where he really made an impact was on special teams. Bradley was second on the team in special teams snaps with 282 (66%) and was tied for the team lead in special teams tackles with 12.
The Bad: Despite the absence of great players ahead of him, Bradley still played a total of just 76 snaps on defense in 2020.
The Future: With a deeper football background, Bradley was clearly ahead of Taylor in the pecking order this year. While the Eagles might have found something in Alex Singleton, the rest of the linebacker position is still up for grabs going forward. So Bradley’s floor is as a really good special teams player but he has a chance to compete for a bigger role on defense in 2021.
The Good: Watkins finally got a chance to play once Hurts was named the starting quarterback and did good things. In the last four weeks of the season, he caught 7 passes for 106 yards and a touchdown. On his 32-yard touchdown against the Cardinals, Watkins reached a top speed of 20.35 mph, showing off that 4.35 speed he had in the combine.
The Bad: It was a small sample size. Watkins finally got to play in the final four games of the season but played just 20 total offensive snaps until the last quarter of the season. And he missed the first quarter of the season with an injury he suffered in training camp. Despite his background as a returner at Southern Mississippi, Watkins didn’t get that opportunity on punts or kickoffs in his rookie season.
The Future: At least Watkins finished strong and was able to show some good signs down the stretch. For a while, it was looking like a redshirt season. But we saw enough to at least provide a little hope that Watkins figures into the Eagles’ future at least as a depth piece. He seems to have a connection with Hurts, so the QB decision may play into Watkins’ future.
The Good: The Eagles were able to get Tega to their practice squad and keep him there all year without losing him to another team. So he had a year of development under Jeff Stoutland. And Tega was finally active for the final game of the season, making his NFL debut.
The Bad: In that NFL debut, he played just two special teams snaps. The Eagles in 2020 lost Andre Dillard, Jason Peters, Lane Johnson, Jack Driscoll and Jordan Mailata to injury and Tega Wanogho still didn’t get an opportunity to play. That kind of tells you how much work there is to do before he’s a viable option.
The Future: Like we said, there’s a lot of work to do. But Stoutland gets to keep his projects and he’ll get a chance to turn the Prince into a player.
The Good: There weren’t a ton of expectations for the 233rd pick in the draft but Toohill really stood out at training camp and earned one of 53 roster spots. It looked like the Eagles got a steal in later rounds.
The Bad: Toohill played 22 snaps in the second game of the season and was inactive in four other games before the Eagles cut him with the hope of sneaking him through to the practice squad. Instead, the Washington Football Team claimed Toohill on waivers and the Eagles lost the young edge rusher. While it might not be the end of the world, this was clear mismanagement of the Eagles’ roster. The Eagles kept Alshon Jeffery on the roster for the first eight games of the season and they didn’t need to. That error cost them their seventh-round pick.
The Future: Toohill played in eight games for Washington but logged just 29 total defensive snaps with two tackles and a QB hit. For now, his future is in Washington. But you never know. Maybe he ends up back in Philly at some point down the line.
