2017 Eagles Complete Draft Review

[I miss Dawkins]

So, even though I knew about Donnel Pumphrey, I had not watched much film or concentrated much on him prior to hearing his name called as our pick. So I started watching anything I could find on him today and find this kid to be electric and he plays with more pop than I expected. His quickness, vision and cutting ability on a dime are insane. Now, of course this is obviously not a Back you want to give 20 carries to at the pro level because even if he gains 6-8 lbs he's still not going to punish a D ... but after watching him I would certainly be ok with giving him 10-12 carries and think there is a good chance of him breaking a couple for big yards. He is not a guy who dances much, even when he's cutting he maintains his speed going forward. Below is a link where he broke Marshal Faulk's record against Cal ... very impressive arsenal.

Conerned about his ability to stay healthy given his size and what he will face at this level

But I have to agree with you. He is always moving upfield. Doesn't dance too much. Cut and go. Always falling forward as well. That's an impressive clip. And breaking Marshal Faulks record is no small feat.

it seems we went after a lot of record breakers this year. Makes you wonder if J. Ross wasn't their primary target at 1 after all.

I look forward to seeing what this kid can do. It will help him a lot to learn under sproles.

 

[Northern Eagle]

IMO, the draft as a whole was a solid double as opposed to swinging for the fences. Sometimes a double is a good thing because you know exactly what you're getting.

I love Barnett as a person and as a player. This might make some people groan but he reminds me a bit of Derrick Burgess - the Oakland Raiders version - not a great tester, average physical profile but relentless effort, toughness and advanced technique will equal production at the next level.

Sid Jones, if it were not for the injury, might have been the Saints' pick at 11. No reason to believe he can't recover 100%, by all accounts from what I've read he's on his way. It's important the doctors don't rush him back, I'd place him on the PUP and work him in the 2nd half of the season. He might end up being the best pick out of this class 3 years from now. At worst he's Desmond Trufant, who just signed a $70M contract extension this off-season.

Rasul Douglas is a big corner, physical, with actual ball skills and will tackle. Good week at the senior bowl and great personal story who fought through a lot of adversity to get to where he is.

Hollins brings immediate impact on special teams. I'm not as high on him as a receiver as some, but he has some underrated ability as a guy that can stretch the field vertically. Health is his biggest issue.

Initially I didn't care for the Pumphrey pick, but putting it into context, he's going to be Sproles' replacement. I don't think they drafted him to be a lead back - I watched his bowl game against a very good Houston defense, and he still played well in that game despite everyone knowing they were going to force him the ball to get the rushing record. He's electric once he gets to the second level and has space to work with. Has value in the offense as a Sproles/Woodhead type of player.

Gibson was a guy that I had as a possibility for the Birds in the 4th round, they got him one round later and brings juice on the outside. This guy is a legitimate burner and you can never have enough speed in your offense as far as I'm concerned.

Must admit I don't know much about Gerry, but I like that they're going to play him as a WILL. When Schwartz plays nickel and likes to sub in that 3rd Safety, Gerry will have value in that role. Tough as hell too. Had a good week at the senior bowl.

Qualls looks like a fun prospect with what Washington did with him in their defense. I'm pulling for him to make the team, I think he could push Vaeao for a spot on the final roster.

 

[knowyourenemy]

Ex-Cowboy Drew Pearson trolls Eagles fans in epic rant announcing draft pick | SportsDay

Hey bro, what happened to the Bucks? I thought they had better talent than the Raptors.

 

[ctc]

Ex-Cowboy Drew Pearson trolls Eagles fans in epic rant announcing draft pick | SportsDay

That was the moment of the draft wasn't it. One word EPIC.

 

[old duke]

IMO, the draft as a whole was a solid double as opposed to swinging for the fences. Sometimes a double is a good thing because you know exactly what you're getting.

I love Barnett as a person and as a player. This might make some people groan but he reminds me a bit of Derrick Burgess - the Oakland Raiders version - not a great tester, average physical profile but relentless effort, toughness and advanced technique will equal production at the next level.

Sid Jones, if it were not for the injury, might have been the Saints' pick at 11. No reason to believe he can't recover 100%, by all accounts from what I've read he's on his way. It's important the doctors don't rush him back, I'd place him on the PUP and work him in the 2nd half of the season. He might end up being the best pick out of this class 3 years from now. At worst he's Desmond Trufant, who just signed a $70M contract extension this off-season.

Rasul Douglas is a big corner, physical, with actual ball skills and will tackle. Good week at the senior bowl and great personal story who fought through a lot of adversity to get to where he is.

Hollins brings immediate impact on special teams. I'm not as high on him as a receiver as some, but he has some underrated ability as a guy that can stretch the field vertically. Health is his biggest issue.

Initially I didn't care for the Pumphrey pick, but putting it into context, he's going to be Sproles' replacement. I don't think they drafted him to be a lead back - I watched his bowl game against a very good Houston defense, and he still played well in that game despite everyone knowing they were going to force him the ball to get the rushing record. He's electric once he gets to the second level and has space to work with. Has value in the offense as a Sproles/Woodhead type of player.

Gibson was a guy that I had as a possibility for the Birds in the 4th round, they got him one round later and brings juice on the outside. This guy is a legitimate burner and you can never have enough speed in your offense as far as I'm concerned.

Must admit I don't know much about Gerry, but I like that they're going to play him as a WILL. When Schwartz plays nickel and likes to sub in that 3rd Safety, Gerry will have value in that role. Tough as hell too. Had a good week at the senior bowl.

Qualls looks like a fun prospect with what Washington did with him in their defense. I'm pulling for him to make the team, I think he could push Vaeao for a spot on the final roster.

Very good analysis, Northern!

 

[iceman42]

IMO, the draft as a whole was a solid double as opposed to swinging for the fences. Sometimes a double is a good thing because you know exactly what you're getting.

They played it pretty well if you ask me overall B and if Jones comes back and starts next year it will be an A .. From my seat I could have been happy with OJ Howard I would have been fine with but from a needs perspective it would have not been a good fit considering we have 3 under contract, and I would have liked Hooker but again from a needs perspective we have one of the top safety tandems in the NFL so I cannot fault them for picking Barnett -- who in a number of our own mocks went either at or before our pick. I didnt want Allen or Humphrey and I did want Foster but I will tell you after the questions that came up with injuries and off the field stuff the fact that he fell from top 10- top 12 consideration to 31 kinda makes me wonder. Everyone knows I was happy with Barnett from pre-draft and us getting someone I am happy with pre-draft is rare considering all the jinx jokes I was making. Will he be the top DE from this draft .. only time will tell. I hope at least he is a solid starter for a decade.

Jones is the gamble .. but if they are careful with him this is not an injury where people cannot return to form .. if this was some horrible knee injury like Jaylon Smith where he wont be the same player and still might not ever play .. then yes I would be suspect at pick in the 2nd round. I am not sure if this is where people are coming in saying Howie was trying to be the smartest kid in the room .. at some point in Round 2 teams were going to look at Jones .. he wasnt going to make to 99 and likely wasnt going to make it to the third round. I'm fine with it .. CB were dropping left and right and we snagged a top 10 top 15 player at 43 even if Cook was likely our first choice.

I loved Pumphrey in college I watched a lot of SDSU games on TV and he always balled out in those games and was so impressed by his toughness for his size (even in college 180 lbs is small). Loved the Gibson pick I know they have him as a deep threat but he did a lot of jet sweeps and bubble screens in college where he was able to show some YAC abilities.

Didnt know a lot about Douglas, Hollis or Gerry.

At the end of the day any of the 253 players could fall flat on their faces or turn into Hall of Fame talent. The Eagles stuck to their needs and had players fall within those needs where they were picking. I think outside of one pick, Hollis, the Eagles didnt have any reaches -- even Hollis was on the edge of his expected range. The main focus was to shore up the secondary and with Mills from last year, Jones and Douglas this year + a stronger DL that should go a long way in doing that. Outside of Gerry we didnt draft people who need to move to a new position or be taken out of their comfort zone. While we didnt get a RB until later and I will be pissed next year (unless someone emerges) if they dont get our cow bell back -- I cant fault them --they got weapons for Wentz already in Jefferys and Smith (although not 100% sold on him) but with Matthews moving down a slot it should allow him to shine as well.

 

[Northern Eagle]

Hey bro, what happened to the Bucks? I thought they had better talent than the Raptors.

The Bucks self-proclaimed they had more talent than the Raptors - playoff experience prevailed. Giannis is a freak, but he was the beneficiary of some lame calls throughout the series. I can only imagine what the refs are going to let slide with LeBron tonight and the rest of this series moving forward. LeBron usually goes into full Cyborg mode this time of year anyway, hopefully we can at least keep the series more competitive than last year.

 

[knowyourenemy]

The Bucks self-proclaimed they had more talent than the Raptors - playoff experience prevailed. Giannis is a freak, but he was the beneficiary of some lame calls throughout the series. I can only imagine what the refs are going to let slide with LeBron tonight and the rest of this series moving forward. LeBron usually goes into full Cyborg mode this time of year anyway, hopefully we can at least keep the series more competitive than last year.

Didn't realize you were a Raptors fan -- I got into it with Guns N Guitars on the NBA forum because he couldn't explain to me how Milwaukee was more talented than Toronto (outside of Giannis).

I'm predicting Toronto pushes Cleveland to 7 games . . . but I think Cleveland will ultimately prevail. We'll see. I think Cleveland will struggle to match up against Ibaka. At the very least, I think Ibaka's presence may force Love off the floor a decent amount.

 

[Northern Eagle]

They played it pretty well if you ask me overall B and if Jones comes back and starts next year it will be an A .. From my seat I could have been happy with OJ Howard I would have been fine with but from a needs perspective it would have not been a good fit considering we have 3 under contract, and I would have liked Hooker but again from a needs perspective we have one of the top safety tandems in the NFL so I cannot fault them for picking Barnett -- who in a number of our own mocks went either at or before our pick. I didnt want Allen or Humphrey and I did want Foster but I will tell you after the questions that came up with injuries and off the field stuff the fact that he fell from top 10- top 12 consideration to 31 kinda makes me wonder. Everyone knows I was happy with Barnett from pre-draft and us getting someone I am happy with pre-draft is rare considering all the jinx jokes I was making. Will he be the top DE from this draft .. only time will tell. I hope at least he is a solid starter for a decade.

Jones is the gamble .. but if they are careful with him this is not an injury where people cannot return to form .. if this was some horrible knee injury like Jaylon Smith where he wont be the same player and still might not ever play .. then yes I would be suspect at pick in the 2nd round. I am not sure if this is where people are coming in saying Howie was trying to be the smartest kid in the room .. at some point in Round 2 teams were going to look at Jones .. he wasnt going to make to 99 and likely wasnt going to make it to the third round. I'm fine with it .. CB were dropping left and right and we snagged a top 10 top 15 player at 43 even if Cook was likely our first choice.

I loved Pumphrey in college I watched a lot of SDSU games on TV and he always balled out in those games and was so impressed by his toughness for his size (even in college 180 lbs is small). Loved the Gibson pick I know they have him as a deep threat but he did a lot of jet sweeps and bubble screens in college where he was able to show some YAC abilities.

Didnt know a lot about Douglas, Hollis or Gerry.

At the end of the day any of the 253 players could fall flat on their faces or turn into Hall of Fame talent. The Eagles stuck to their needs and had players fall within those needs where they were picking. I think outside of one pick, Hollis, the Eagles didnt have any reaches -- even Hollis was on the edge of his expected range. The main focus was to shore up the secondary and with Mills from last year, Jones and Douglas this year + a stronger DL that should go a long way in doing that. Outside of Gerry we didnt draft people who need to move to a new position or be taken out of their comfort zone. While we didnt get a RB until later and I will be pissed next year (unless someone emerges) if they dont get our cow bell back -- I cant fault them --they got weapons for Wentz already in Jefferys and Smith (although not 100% sold on him) but with Matthews moving down a slot it should allow him to shine as well.

Gibson does compare a bit to DJAX, alebit a poor man's version maybe, and I think he will be used in similar fashion in the Eagles offense in terms of jet sweeps, bubble screens, etc.

Sid should be just fine, just as long as he doesn't defy the doctors' schedule and the Eagles don't rush him to the field for Week 1. After watching Lattimore fall a bit the way he did, if Sid was healthy he likely would have been the first CB off the board last Thursday. Birds got great value and I don't think they would have taken him at 43 if they didn't believe the odds were in their favor for him to make a full recovery.

The Birds had A LOT of needs, can't address them all in one off-season but I came away feeling good about what they did this past weekend - a step in the right direction.

 

[GNG]

Hey bro, what happened to the Bucks? I thought they had better talent than the Raptors.

They do but shit happens...

 

[Northern Eagle]

Didn't realize you were a Raptors fan -- I got into it with Guns N Guitars on the NBA forum because he couldn't explain to me how Milwaukee was more talented than Toronto (outside of Giannis).

I'm predicting Toronto pushes Cleveland to 7 games . . . but I think Cleveland will ultimately prevail. We'll see. I think Cleveland will struggle to match up against Ibaka. At the very least, I think Ibaka's presence may force Love off the floor a decent amount.

Fan from day 1 - I was at the draft in Toronto when we booed Isaiah Thomas for making Damon Stoudamire being our first draft pick, when they played their first couple of seasons in the baseball stadium because there was no other venue to play in at the time, and John Saunders (RIP) was our very first TV play-by-play guy before he left for ESPN. They've come a long way!

In the series last year, Cleveland had a lot of issues trying to deal with Biyombo - I agree with you, Serge is essentially a better version of Biyombo because he can stretch the floor offensively, brings the same impact defensively, and will neutralize Love who gave us a lot of problems last year. Cleveland's defense was awful in big parts of the 2nd half this season, I'm hoping some of that shows in this series. Goes without saying, but Lowry/DeRozan need to have a monster series, and the bench must bring it at both ends for us to have a chance.

 

[eaglesnut]

Conerned about his ability to stay healthy given his size and what he will face at this level.

Small guys don't get hurt, big guys do. Small guys mostly avoid big hits, and big guys mostly take big hits. Check out the injury rolls every week.

 

[Northern Eagle]

It is quite an accomplishment that a small guy like Pumphrey never got hurt - he had 1100 career carries, and from what I saw SDSU ran a power based offense so he ran in between the tackles a lot. Eagles will have a plan for him.

 

[Birds4life81]

Pumphrey is sick! He lined up I formation and he'll run hard with great vision, decisiveness, agility, and the guy thinks he's way bigger than he is, I love that mentality. He doesn't fall back like you think a 176lb guy would. Obviously the NFL is a much more physical game with the type of athletes in here, but Pumphrey isn't going to be doing a lot of I formation or workhorse type of work he did in college -- but that is so impressive to achieve what he did at that weight. He is a SICK athlete, I don't care about his combine numbers, that kid is an insane athlete. He's extremely explosive, he makes defenders look flat out silly and slow most the time. He's got great hands and knows how to run routes, and he can make tough contested catches like a slot WR. He didn't do much PR work at the college level, but he can, and he says he wants to, and I have a feeling he'd be a stud as a PR. He's Darren Sproles 2.0, no not as thick or powerful, but the same role and much younger on an offense that should have a huge role for him. He'll run stretch plays and explode, he'll run inside and surprise defenders by his speed and ability to cut back with great vision and athleticism, he'll catch a ton of screens, run routes as a RB (Wheel route with Wentz's arm should be fun to watch), split as a slot WR, he'll get work as PR. A great hurry-up RB. Extremely hard worker with a chip on his shoulder too, what better person to be his mentor than Sproles himself. I love this fit.

 

[iceman42]

It is quite an accomplishment that a small guy like Pumphrey never got hurt - he had 1100 career carries, and from what I saw SDSU ran a power based offense so he ran in between the tackles a lot. Eagles will have a plan for him.

I dont want to jinx him but he very rarely took a big hit .. he delivered a few as he didnt always dart around people theres a few times I remember him going after a few DBs who were on their heels rather then jump out of bounds.

 

[Iggloo]

How do you think Kelce's days are numbered when the top threat to him we brought in was an UDFA??

I want to believe you. I need to believe that the coaching staff is not this clueless about our OL when it comes to protecting Wentz. But I don't see the end of Kelce the way you do. In fact, at this point, I fully expect for you to see Kelce as the starting C yet another year. I hope, I pray, I'm wrong.

The bigger threats to Kelce are Wiz and Seumalo. This guy would just be a possible backup as a rookie, but it makes Kelce even more expendable now, we have four possible centers on the roster.

 

[Rey]

Eagles declined the 5th year option of DE Marcus Smith and can save close to 1.5 mil if they release him. I think Smith needs to have a big camp for him not to be released. Steven Means can step in at a fraction of the cost as the #5 DE.

 

[Premium]

I was fairly impressed with the Eagles draft. I felt they filled their needs and played the supply and demand equation well from a tactical game play perspective. i.e. They got the DE in the first which was in short supply, got starting quality corners which they critically needed in the 2nd and 3rd as there was depth there, and then added depth at WR and RB later in the draft.

RB still looks kind of iffy, but that is the best sort of position to be short at. Pumphrey is an interesting player and compares well with Warrick Dunn, but you won't find many 170 lb RBs. I wonder if they would sign LeGarret Blount? I think he is still on the market.

I like the concept of drafting Sidney Jones...A first round talent once healthy. It shows a patience from Howie I did not expect. It's impossible to say if they reached for him or not? It's reasonable to think they could have drafted him a round later?

As I sit here and second guess, I get annoyed at all the second guessers "Grading" the draft. It should be the opposite. The drafters are the experts that the mockers should be measured against....not the other way around.

 

[eaglesnut]

As I sit here and second guess, I get annoyed at all the second guessers "Grading" the draft. It should be the opposite. The drafters are the experts that the mockers should be measured against....not the other way around.

I mocked us Barnett in a live mock. I'm brilliant.

 

[Northern Eagle]

I mocked us Barnett in a live mock. I'm brilliant.

LOL - do you walk on water too?