Reading into Eagles GM's draft comments

NEARLY 30 reporters crowded into a NovaCare meeting room Monday to talk to Eagles general manager Howie Roseman about the April 25-27 NFL draft. The session lasted nearly an hour, and the discussion meandered all over the map.

Lots of the stuff Roseman said will be sprinkled through predraft stories over the next week or so. Right now, let's just parse what we might have learned about what the Birds might or might not do in the first round, when they pick fourth overall, their highest draft position since they selected Donovan McNabb second overall in 1999.

Roseman didn't break a lot of new ground there, but he did leave impressions.

With only one selection in each of the first through fifth rounds of what is billed as a deep draft, it seems likely the Eagles will try to move down at least a few slots.

"Even during the combine, you talk to people about their pick and what's going on," Roseman said. "The serious conversation will pick up next week, when you've had a chance to sit back, look at your draft board, go through scenarios and figure out what you're looking at and what you're going to get."

If you're a Geno Smith fan, the overall impression was mixed; Roseman said some things that could indicate serious interest in the West Virginia quarterback, but he also talked about the dangers of reaching, and reiterated that with the fourth pick, you want to be sure of what you're getting.

Roseman called 2013 a "meat and potatoes" draft, with the top talent arrayed along the offensive and defensive lines; it might be hard to defend taking a QB fourth overall after saying that.

On the other hand, he said last year's QB class was so strong, it makes this year's group look weaker than it really is, that this is more like a "normal" QB year.

But Roseman also said that Pro Football Weekly analyst Nolan Nawrocki is "someone who has a lot of credibility." Nawrocki famously blistered Smith last week as lacking in leadership, work habits and focus. Roseman said the Eagles take seriously such evaluations, but they make decisions based on their own information. They not only flew to West Virginia to work out Smith, they had him come to the NovaCare facility to see how he adjusted to the Eagles' atmosphere, Roseman said.

Asked about teams spending high draft picks on franchise QBs who don't work out, Roseman said that when you do that, "you're passing on a player you think is going to be a really good player at another position. Like anything in this draft, you want to be sure. You don't want to take someone because you 'think' . . . We're not going to force anything."

If you figure the Eagles are likely to end up with one of the three prominent first-round-projected offensive tackles (Luke Joeckel, Eric Fisher and Lane Johnson), Roseman gave no indication that would be any sort of disappointment. He talked about how hard it is to find guys who have the size and quickness of elite o-linemen, and agreed they are easier to project from college to the pros than players at some other positions.

If you covet Oregon defensive end (and possible 3-4 outside linebacker) Dion Jordan with the fourth pick, Roseman gave some encouragement. He again emphasized how important it is that new coach Chip Kelly and some of his staff know Jordan well from Oregon.

"They really know," Roseman said. "When you go to these colleges and they tell you [about a player's makeup], you think you're certain what they're saying, but you don't know until they're in the building and they're part of it."

Roseman also said the pass-rushing talent in this draft is at the top, perhaps indicating that if the Birds want help there, they will have to devote that fourth overall pick. The next Eagles pick, in the second round, is 35th overall, and Roseman acknowledged the team doesn't have first-round grades on 35 players.

For that reason, if the Eagles do trade down from No. 4, don't look for anything really dramatic; they want to get a first-round-worthy talent out of Kelly's first draft.

"Certainly on our draft board, there's a clear line of players we think can be elite talents in this league," Roseman said.

If you'd rather see a defensive tackle, such as former George Washington High and Florida star Sharrif Floyd, or Utah's Star Lotulelei, Roseman emphasized how well the Eagles know Floyd, and he said the team has medically cleared Lotulelei, who suffered a heart scare at the NFL Scouting Combine.

If you're hoping for Alabama corner Dee Milliner but were alarmed that Milliner's visit to NovaCare was called off, Roseman said the Eagles felt they had a good session with Milliner in Indianapolis, knew everything they needed to know about him, concluded they could better spend one of their 30 predraft visits on someone about whom they had more questions.

It might be easier to figure out what the Eagles will do with their top pick if we knew who has final say on making it. Roseman deftly danced around that topic Monday, treating the decision as a collaboration.

Howie Roseman was asked about evaluating the way players use social media.

"We have someone looking over Facebook pages, Twitter accounts - in front of us will come every single person on our draft board, their Twitter accounts and their Facebook accounts," Roseman said. "It's important how they represent themselves in those settings. I think you see the process they go through, some of these players, they'll tweet certain things, and then once the draft process starts all of a sudden they'll shut it down or they'll say something really positive. Those are discussions we want to have. Those are some of the players we want to spend extra time with and understand, get into their mind-set. What's going to happen when they get drafted and get some money? That is part of the process now.

"It's a reflection on our organization, our ownership. We want to be sure we're bringing the right people into the building.

"Most of these guys who do questionable things on Facebook or Twitter, they probably have done other questionable things."

As the Eagles prepared for Tuesday's start of the extra 3-day minicamp granted first-year coaches, the team released veteran quarterback Trent Edwards, which wasn't a surprise . . . Howie Roseman said Todd Herremans will line up at tackle today. Asked the status of disappointing 2011 first-round pick Danny Watkins, Roseman indicated Watkins will get a chance to redeem himself at right guard. "We're really encouraged by Danny. He's got a chip on his shoulder. He's really energized to come in and get somewhat of a fresh start. That's the way he looks at it. He's been here in the offseason program," said Roseman, who added that Watkins drove in from Texas a few weeks ago for the start of the offseason workouts, right after getting married. Watkins confirmed this report and said his wife wasn't pleased not to get a honeymoon, but "she'll get over it."

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