Draft's likely impact on 2017 Eagles | Les Bowen
The Eagles' draft haul won't challenge the balance of power in the NFC East, but it was solid.
I HAVEN'T thrown out a "hot take" yet on the Eagles' 2017 draft.
Please forgive me. I don't know with certainty who "the 5 Eagles vets put on notice by the draft" might be. I am not ready to predict the 53-man roster. I don't know, four months before the start of the season, without having seen the Eagles or any other team on the field yet, what their record will be, though I am willing to say the talent and the schedule seem, from a distance, to line up a little better than they did last year.
I also don't have any breathtaking revelations on What This All Means for Doug Pederson. He continues to not have the kind of draft role Andy Reid or Chip Kelly had, something we knew when he was hired. His job is to develop Carson Wentz. If he does that, he'll probably be coaching here a while. Changing coaches usually means changing systems, it isn't like changing managers in baseball. The Eagles have done enough of that lately.
A lot of this is stuff I say every year, because May is always filled with questionably reasoned speculation. But there are special circumstances this year that make me even more reticent.
The phrase that comes up when I think of this Eagles draft is "long-term." I see a group of draftees who all seem to have a chance to be here for a while, nobody who looks at first glance like an Alex McCalister-type redshirt. Meat, and also potatoes. Building blocks.
This was also the opinion of a personnel exec from another team I texted with on Thursday. He liked most of the Eagles' eight selections. He didn't seem to see anyone changing the face of the NFC East overnight.
The first-round pick, Derek Barnett, is an edge rusher who will play as part of a rotation. This bothered some fans who tweeted and emailed me during and after the draft: What if he only plays 15-20 snaps a game?
It's a bit early to determine snap counts, and Barnett seems to be a low-risk talent at a really important position. I get the sentiment, though - my first-round preference would have been to add a high-octane offensive weapon that Wentz can grow with over the next several years. Like tight end O.J. Howard at 14. Or maybe trade back, pick up some assets, and select wideout Zay Jones, who went 37th overall, in the second round, to Buffalo.
But Barnett was a very logical choice at 14, if not an exciting one. I am obligated to note that if Marcus Smith hadn't been a crushing disappointment, and if Vinny Curry had produced in line with his contract last season, the Eagles probably would have gone in another direction with their first pick. But reality is, they needed Barnett.
Second-round selection Sidney Jones definitely is all about the long term. Jones thinks his Achilles' rehab is going well enough that he can play sometime in September, my medical source guesses 6 to 8 weeks into the season, but after missing the spring work and training camp, it's hard to imagine a rookie corner jumping right into the middle of the schedule and having an impact. We might see Jones in 2017, but we'll probably see the real Jones in 2018, and after.
Rasul Douglas illustrates one of the dangers with overhyping this draft. He's the corner the Eagles took in the third round, 99th overall, and he seems well-suited to Jim Schwartz's press-man concepts. But the position is such a wasteland for the Eagles, with Jones still rehabbing, some fans have penciled Douglas into the starting lineup.
The thing is, Douglas was the 17th corner drafted last week. Yes, it was said to be a great corner draft, but at 6-2, 209, with long arms, if Douglas had come out of West Virginia looking ready to dominate receivers in the NFL, he wouldn't have been there at 99.
"Talented but raw," said the personnel exec I texted with. "Think he'll need time."
The possibility of the Eagles opening the 2017 season with a Jalen Mills-Ron Brooks corner tandem, or Mills-Patrick Robinson, with Brooks in the slot, still looks very real.
The same applies to the offensive skill guys the Eagles added - wideout Mack Hollins and running back Donnel Pumphrey in the fourth round, and wideout Shelton Gibson in the fifth. Each of these guys has intriguing traits. None of them would seem to be a superstar talent who just somehow went unnoticed for more than three rounds.
Hollins is Riley Cooper with maybe a bit more upside and no incriminating concert-video footage. Scouting reports touted Gibson's speed but indicated his route-running was really undeveloped.
Pumphrey is the most intriguing to me, because there certainly is opportunity for him to grab a prominent role in the Eagles' underwhelming running-back corps, and you hear all sorts of amazing things about how tough and durable he is.
But I have this thing with small running backs. Short and thick works - I have covered both Brian Westbrook and Darren Sproles, and I am certain of this. Short and thin does not work. I also covered Lorenzo Booker.
Probably more than any other offseason acquisition, I want to see Pumphrey in August when the Eagles put on pads. Then I will believe it. At 176 pounds, Pumphrey gives away 16 pounds to kicker Caleb Sturgis. But a lot of analysts sure do like him.
The last two guys drafted are role players. Nathan Gerry (fifth round) is a big safety from Nebraska who will play special teams while the Eagles figure out if he can transition to linebacker, but really, he looks like a special-teams guy. Defensive tackle Elijah Qualls looks like a nify pickup, a rotational lineman who provides good insurance, with Beau Allen rehabbing a torn pec tendon.
A solid, deep group, fewer reaches and projects than we are accustomed to seeing, in the first year of Joe Douglas as player-personnel vice president. But will anybody make a big difference in 2017?
Birdseed
The Eagles continued to clear roster space for their so-far-unannounced group of undrafted free agents. They released guard Josh LeRibeus, a former Washington third-round pick, and waived fullback Andrew Bonnet and running back Terrell Watson. Bonnet, a North Dakota State teammate of Carson Wentz, spent some time on last year's practice squad, as did Watson, who was promoted to the active roster before the season finale and scored a touchdown against Dallas.
@LesBowen
Blog: philly.com/Eaglesblog