Skip to content
Eagles
Link copied to clipboard

Pass rush more: Birds' draft picks focus on defensive front seven

THIRTEEN DRAFTEES, the most the Eagles have brought aboard since 1986, when the selection process dragged on for 12 rounds, instead of the current seven. Nine picks for the defense, including the first five, which would seem to be a franchise record. Three defensive ends, two linebackers and a defensive tackle added before the Birds were done - six picks for the front seven. Not one offensive lineman taken, for only the third time in the dozen drafts of the Andy Reid era.

THIRTEEN DRAFTEES, the most the Eagles have brought aboard since 1986, when the selection process dragged on for 12 rounds, instead of the current seven. Nine picks for the defense, including the first five, which would seem to be a franchise record. Three defensive ends, two linebackers and a defensive tackle added before the Birds were done - six picks for the front seven. Not one offensive lineman taken, for only the third time in the dozen drafts of the Andy Reid era.

You thought the Birds' most glaring holes were in the secondary? The guys in the war room begged to differ.

After the 3-day extravaganza ended, someone mentioned to Eagles coach Reid that there had been some predraft buzz about this possibly shaping up like 2002, when the team took two corners and a safety in the first two rounds.

"At that particular time, we had taken care of our front. I wanted to make sure we started there; I always look at that area first," Reid said. "They make everybody better around 'em."

The upshot from Reid and other Eagles sources was clear: The defense was the biggest reason for last season's disappointing first-round playoff exit, and the way to fix it was to fortify the pass rush. The official view is that Dallas pressure disrupted the Eagles' offense, just as Minnesota pressure ended the Cowboys' season a week later.

"We've added speed all across the defense, speed and quickness, and that heart - even though they're not the biggest guys, they've all got big hearts, and they can move," Reid said. "At the college level, they got to the football, which can be important both in the pass game and the run game."

The draft also reflected what Eagles general manager Howie Roseman said a few weeks back when asked what he felt was the strongest position in this talent pool, deepened by underclassmen coming out this year because they fear an NFL lockout in 2011.

"We have more defensive linemen graded [as being worthy of being selected] in the first three rounds than we've had in the whole drafts the last 3 years," Roseman said.

If you look at the defensive moves the Eagles have made this offseason - getting rid of nine veterans, adding free-agent defensive end Darryl Tapp, linebacker Ernie Sims and free-agent safety Marlin Jackson, then drafting that huge haul of nine defenders - you can also see a transformation from the late defensive coordinator Jim Johnson to his successor, Sean McDermott, who hardly got to pick his players after taking over for his ailing mentor just before training camp started last summer.

Veteran safety Quintin Mikell recently caused a stir when he indicated that last season, some since-departed veterans questioned McDermott's moves and thought more about their own stats than the team. Yesterday, Mikell said he hadn't meant to say that "people weren't playing for Sean," but that "everyone kind of lost focus about what we were about."

Regardless, Mikell agreed that McDermott will be able to coach this young unit pretty much from the ground up - with more and more players who won't be comparing him against Johnson.

"When you get younger, you get to mold guys," he said. "It's not Jim Johnson's defense anymore, it's Sean McDermott's defense."

McDermott was not available for comment over the weekend. He is expected to hold a news conference during the minicamp that starts Friday.

Mikell followed the draft closely and felt it was "pretty much on point with what I thought would happen. I thought we would draft a defensive end early," and the Eagles did, trading up to take Michigan's Brandon Graham 13th overall.

"I thought we might get a corner early," Mikell said. With the Eagles trading longtime starter Sheldon Brown to Cleveland, and Ellis Hobbs seemingly struggling in coverage last season before going down with a neck injury, many observers figured corner might be the team's top priority. Instead, the only corner the Birds took was Kentucky's Trevard Lindley, though Reid touted second-round safety Nate Allen from South Florida as being capable of playing the corner as well. Reid also mentioned Jackson and second-year safety Macho Harris, a corner at Virginia Tech, as candidates for that group.

Mikell said he hadn't envisioned three more defensive ends from the draft, after Tapp came aboard in free agency, but he said he thought maybe the Birds were surprised to see Clemson star Ricky Sapp still there in the fifth round, and figured they had to take him.

The weekend's moves sharpened the debate over management's refusal to accept any sort of "rebuilding" designation; Allen related to reporters how Reid told him he was part of a "youth movement." Reid's point seems to be that whatever the team is doing, he expects to be competitive this season, doesn't want anyone using youth as an excuse.

"He came in and he saw all these young guys that we're picking here, so I told him [that], yeah, but this is not a rebuilding process," Reid said. "We're bringing in a lot of young guys and we've got some good veteran players here and I want these guys to think they're coming in to compete and let's go. This train's moving, jump on and let's go, fast."

Mikell turns 30 in September and could be the oldest starter, should Tapp and/or Graham beat out incumbent Juqua Parker.

"I don't think it's going to be any different," he said. "Our nucleus is pretty much intact . . . it shouldn't be a big problem, teaching the new guys the ropes . . . We'll see what we have when we line up."

As usual, the Eagles went for guys who were described as fast and relentless, but not as especially large. "That's the way our team is built," Mikell said. "We like to blitz a lot, like to come after guys. We tend to be strong, short and fast."

The Birds went into the draft with five selections in the first 87 picks, the most of any team. But after trading up for Graham and taking Allen with the 37th pick in the second round, the one they got from the Redskins for Donovan McNabb, they embarked on a series of trades that pushed them well into the third round before they tabbed Washington defensive end Daniel Te'o-Nesheim 86th overall.

The Eagles ended up with four selections in the fourth round, two in the fifth, one in the sixth and three in the seventh. They clearly felt the value in this group was toward the back, going from seven picks in the first 121 to nine from slots 121 to 244.

"The objective that we went into this with, and Howie set this up and did a phenomenal job with it, was finding where the strength of the draft was, and then you set your board up with players that you like," Reid said. "It's important that you do just that, and that you're not influenced by whatever outside influences there are, but [identify] the players you think are best for our football team, then you stick to that board. You evaluate it before the draft and you see what rounds that you think these players are strong or stronger than other rounds and the quality of the player, then you put yourself in a position to take those players."

For more Eagles coverage and opinion, read the Daily News' Eagles blog, Eagletarian, at www.eagletarian.com.