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More draft love for Birds

I thought we were done with rounding up opinions of the Eagles' draft, but links continue to trickle in, so here are some more:

Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News ranks the draft performances of NFC East teams. He used different criteria than most, however. Vacchiano ranks them based on most-improved for 2009. He's got the Eagles No. 1.

The might have gotten the steal of the draft when they traded up to 19 for Missouri WR Jeremy Maclin. I'm told the Giants would've been more aggressive about moving up for him if he slipped a spot or two farther, but they weren't prepared to pay the price to get above 20. Maclin isn't the big target some thought the Eagles needed, but good luck to teams in the future trying to cover DeSean Jackson on one side and Maclin on the other.

Vacchiano lists the Giants second, the Redskins third and the Cowboys fourth.

ESPN.com's Matt Mosley spoke with national draft gurus, college scouting directors and two assistant coaches to size up the NFC East. The consensus was that the Eagles had the best draft in the division.

Trading up two spots to secure Missouri wide receiver Jeremy Maclin has been widely praised. One scout said Maclin "will be a more complete receiver than DeSean Jackson." And by at least midseason, the consensus is that Jackson and Maclin will be starting. You don't draft a kid at No. 19 overall to put behind Kevin Curtis.

Tom Herrera of Fanhouse gives the Eagles an A-minus.

NBCSports.com gives the Eagles a B:

To think LeSean McCoy will eventually replace Brian Westbrook is a stretch. McCoy has a lot of work to do as a pass blocker and inside runner. Philadelphia would've been better off with Chris Wells.

Football Outsiders did what we're doing, but they selected 10 specific graders and rounded up how all the teams in the league were evaluated. The Eagles had the highest GPA at 3.57. The lowest grades for the Eagles were B-minuses from ESPN's Mel Kiper and Yahoo's Charles Robinson.