The Philadelphia Eagles Were The Runaway Winners Of The 2022 NFL Draft
And it wasn't particularly close.
If you read any "Draft winners" article that doesn't list the Philadelphia Eagles at the #1 spot, then they're either completely full of shit, or simply have no idea what they're talking about (or some combination of both).
At a hundred-thousand foot level: the Eagles added two of the very best players in the entire NFL Draft, acquired a top-15 wide receiver in the NFL, but also managed to secure an additional first-round pick in a 2023 NFL Draft that looks better than this year's version (at least when it comes to the top-end talent projected to be available).
As someone else very eloquently said (I wish I could remember who it was so I could give them proper attribution): Howe Roseman is quickly becoming the Danny Ainge of the NFL: if he calls you to discuss any deals, quickly hang up the phone, lest you want to find yourself getting absolutely pantsed in a deal.
First, Philadelphia shrewdly leveraged a fourth and two fifth round picks to go from their spot at #15 up to Houston's spot at #13, thereby leapfrogging the Baltimore Ravens at #14 to steal away defensive tackle Jordan Davis from the University of Georgia (the Ravens' interest in Davis was one of the worst-kept secrets leading into day one of the Draft).
In doing so, the Eagles acquired one of the 10 best overall players in this entire Draft, and fortified the interior of their defensive line by adding a monstrous homewrecker like Davis to an already stout pair in Fletcher Cox and Javon Hargrave. It also gives the Eagles a ton of future flexibility at the position, in case they decide to move on from Cox after this season, when he'll turn 33 years old (they almost did so this offseason, before bringing him back on a one-year deal at a slightly reduced salary).
Then, instead of using their second pick in the first round on another rookie receiver this year (after taking Jalen Reagor — a surefire bust in the making — and Devonta Smith with first round picks in each of the prior two drafts), the Eagles snuck in totally under the league radar and acquired a ready-made receiver in A.J. Brown (formerly of the Tennessee Titans), who's averaged 62 catches for 998 yards and 8 touchdowns over his first three seasons in the NFL.
When Adam Schefter first broke the news via Twitter, I checked the account from which his tweet originated no less than five times, because I would've otherwise swore it was some fake Schefter account posting a bogus transaction. That's how unforeseen the move was -- not to mention the collective combination of "WHOA!" and "WTF?!?" responses from NFL fans everywhere, considering it was only a few days prior when Mike Vrabel said that Tennessee wasn't trading Brown as long as he was the team's head coach.
And then there was the absolute heist of University of Georgia linebacker Nakobe Dean, one of the 15-to-20 best players in this entire Draft class, whom the Eagles grabbed at pick #83, almost midway through the third round of the Draft. Despite the fact that he was the leader and the heartbeat of the second best college football defense since the turn of this century, the NFL evaluator-types had a collective freakout after learning that Dean suffered a strain pectoral muscle in the pre-Draft process. Rest assured, this is just another example of injury-related fake news hysteria causing a player to fall much further than he should.
I know Dean's stock wasn't helped by concerns about his size (or lack thereof), but NFL teams had those same worries about linebacker Jeremiah Owusu Koramoah just one year ago, only to watch the latter become one of the best young linebackers in the NFL after his rookie season. I would not be the slightest bit surprised if we saw the same from Dean; in fact, I would be surprised if we didn't see the exact same from Dean — who, by the way, is expected to be in attendance and fully healthy for the Eagles' minicamps.
(So much for those "he'll still need surgery which will cause him to miss his rookie season" rumors, huh? Again, when Dean becomes the linebacker equivalent of Derwin James—a stud defensive prospect who fell way farther than necessary because of bogus-injury pre-Draft groupthink—I’m going to throw myself out of a window.)
As mentioned earlier: the pièce de résistance amidst all of these upgrades — to a team that made the playoffs last season, mind you — is the fact that the Eagles are in great position to add another pick in the first half of the round one of the 2023 NFL Draft, considering they own New Orleans' pick (you can definitely count me out from thinking the Saints will get anywhere close to their 9-8 record in their first season without Sean Payton as their coach).
So going back to the hundred-thousand foot view: between all of these moves, plus the addition of cornerback James Bradberry in free agency (filling one of their few remaining needs — specifically, the the cornerback spot opposite of Darius Slay), it’s really hard not to see the Eagles as a serious challenger for the NFC East title—if not the favorite, frankly.
To be fair, the Eagles still have their fair share of question marks. They could use some help at the safety spot opposite of Anthony Harris. They’re sorely lacking any meaningful depth at receiver, behind Brown and Smith. And their overall faith in quarterback Jalen Hurts is far from rock solid.
With all of that said, I think Philadelphia enters the 2022 season as one of four teams—alongside Tampa Bay, San Francisco, and the Los Angeles Rams—without a serious question mark on their roster.
Given that the point of the offseason is for NFL teams to put themselves in better competitive position for the upcoming season, it’s safe to say the Eagles did a damn fine job of this — as good a job as (if not a better one) than any other team in the league, frankly. ■