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Eagles address pass defense in draft

They draft three cornerbacks among their six picks, two of whom could play safety.

IN 2015, THE Eagles really ought to be better than 28th in NFL defense, 31st against the pass.

The offseason remaking of coordinator Bill Davis' unit, which began with the acquisitions of linebacker Kiko Alonso and corner Byron Maxwell, among others, continued in the three-day NFL draft that ended Saturday. After the first-round selection of USC wide receiver Nelson Agholor, all five of the Eagles' draftees were defensive players, three of them cornerbacks. At least a couple of those corners, second-rounder Eric Rowe and sixth-rounder Randall Evans, can also play safety.

Much of the fan base might have been obsessed with quarterback Marcus Mariota going into the draft, but if Chip Kelly was, he certainly did a nice job of recovering, after a package of draft picks failed to pry away from the Tennessee Titans their second overall spot and the opportunity to reunite with Mariota.

Agholor and Rowe were widely praised choices, and throughout, the Eagles seemed true to their stated emphases on size, smarts and character. They did not draft a quarterback, lending some credence to what they have said, that their plan since the March 10 trade with St. Louis has been for Sam Bradford to run the team this year, if they couldn't get Mariota.

After his first draft in total control of the process, Kelly was asked if defense was the emphasis going in.

"Yeah," he said. "And when your needs match the board, then that's when you're in good shape. When your need crosses that talent line, where you're pushing a guy, [that's where you get into trouble]."

The Eagles' biggest problem areas on defense last season were inside linebacker, where they couldn't easily absorb the injury absences of Mychal Kendricks and DeMeco Ryans, and the secondary, where they have jettisoned three of their four 2014 starters. Right now the roster features nine inside linebackers, including third-round draftee Jordan Hicks, from Texas, and 15 defensive backs.

Quantity might not equal quality, but the Birds have added a lot of the body and playing-style fits they say their system requires. We'll see how much those parameters really mean.

Fans probably wanted a clearer answer than they got in the never-ending safety quest. This just wasn't a good draft at the position, with only Arizona State's Damarious Randall going in the first round, 30th overall to Green Bay. Most probably, the Eagles will do a lot of experimenting in the spring and summer, with someone like Rowe, Evans or 2014 draftee Jaylen Watkins getting a chance to usurp Earl Wolff in the spot opposite Malcolm Jenkins.

Kelly was not terribly forthcoming about how the new front-office setup functioned during the draft. He said former general manager Howie Roseman, who gave up his personnel say to Kelly in January, was in the war room.

"Howie is in there advising us," Kelly said. "He was in there the whole time. We had our same group in there and [there was] a lot of bouncing ideas off of."

Kelly said the only difference this year was that "I had to break the tie" if there was disagreement on a player.

But of course, there was more to it than that. Ed Marynowitz, who worked under Roseman a year ago, now runs Eagles personnel for Kelly. Now that the draft is done, it's very likely the dismantling of Roseman's personnel operation will continue. Expect Marynowitz to bring in his people, and for the stable of veteran advisers who were close to Roseman to shrink.

Asked how this group of draftees differed from what the Eagles would have brought in a few years ago, Kelly ducked the question. First he contended he wasn't here a couple of years ago, but this being 2015, he was, as he then reluctantly acknowledged. Ultimately he gave an answer about every year's crop of prospects being different.

Kelly described this year's draft process as "very orderly." He said the brain trust "went through a lot of scenarios in the last couple of weeks, 'If this is there, and this is there, and that's not there, which direction do we head in?' It kind of fell the way we thought it was going to fall."

Asked how the current process works, when the personnel people are assessing players, Kelly said: "I'd like to [explain that], but I really don't want to share that. But I think everybody's voice is heard, and I think everybody is allowed to have their own opinion. we want people to not be on the same page as us, because that's not what we're looking for. We're looking for everybody to see it from a different view . . . I think we've got a bunch of coaches and scouts that are really growth-minded and not fixed-minded, and we're going to continue to do whatever we can to see if we can make this thing work."

Birdseed

Chip Kelly said running back Chris Polk would have made the team if he hadn't asked to be set free to seek a better opportunity. Polk signed with the Texans. Kelly said he was never close to acquiring Miami defensive end Dion Jordan, the former Oregon star drafted third overall in 2013. Jordan has been suspended for the 2015 season after repeated drug-policy violations . . . Speaking of the 2013 draft, in discussing it, Kelly said "there were really no quarterbacks in that draft," which has to sound a bit alarming to Matt Barkley, the QB the Eagles traded up to draft in the fourth round that year.

Blog: ph.ly/Eagletarian