Eagles Mailbag: Howie Roseman is on the clock ... but when? (2024)

Let’s go to the polls:

I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t a virtual tie.

I think the Eagles are more likely to trade up than to sit still. I go back and forth on if it’s for a CB or an OT.

Why can’t the Eagles seem to successfully draft players in the back half of the first round? They’ve been able to hit on players trading up, but they also seem to do pretty well in the 2nd round between Dallas Goedert, Miles Sanders, Jalen Hurts, Cam Jurgens (bit of projection there). Is Roseman just getting boxed in by feeling he has to take a player with a round 1 grade he doesn’t particularly like and then feels open to do anything round 2? - T.O. has BO

Good user name.

Jalen Reagor in 2020 was just plain stupidity. But the other times that Howie Roseman has drafted in the final third of the 1st round, he has been surprised. In 2014 everyone they were targeting at 22 was gone. In 2019 they didn’t expect Andre Dillard to be available in the 20s until the Saturday before the draft, they hadn’t done any real digging on him so Jeff Stoutland Skyped with him for like an hour and they went with that. Last year everyone, including the Eagles, expected Nolan Smith to go earlier than 30.

The way those drafts played out, and that Howie Roseman usually hits when he moves up, says to me that Roseman is looking to move up this year. He’s been burned when he hasn’t been aggressive, and when he has he usually comes out ahead.

From what I’ve read this draft seems to drop off with the talent level somewhere in the mid to late 3rd round. Which generally speaking is quicker than usual. If that is true, don’t the 2 2nd round picks become more valuable to us. Therefore, trading 1 to more up becomes tougher than a normal draft. - FIJoe

Yes and no. This is the shallowest draft in a long time, and it’s not a one-off.

The 2024 draft has 58 underclassmen, the fewest since 2011–when the draft happened during the uncertainty of the lockout. That’s almost an entire round less than 2023 when there were 82, and that underclassmen class was the lowest in years. 2020 had 128 underclassmen, four rounds worth. NIL is keeping late round and fringe prospects in college longer, which is good for college but a problem for front offices. And this year is the last big wave of COVID super seniors. There are still some this upcoming season, but this draft is the last one really loaded with 24 and 25 year old players who got an extra year of eligibility.

NIL/paying players is here to stay, along with unlimited transfers, which gives prospects without top round projection grades incentive to stay “in school” for a year and improve their draft position at little financial risk. The NCAA keeps losing in the courts over NIL and the portal, they are completely helpless to stop it. On Thursday Virginia passed a law allowing schools to directly pay players.

For the 2024 draft it might mean a few less late round trades as front offices take their lumps adjusting to the new reality. But over the long run it’ll be business as usual. 60-ish underclassmen, and possibly even fewer going forward, is the new reality. Elite prospects will always declare early, and there will be players who declare early but shouldn’t and go in the middle of the draft or later. But now players can make a good living staying for another year and taking a shot to improve their draft position. Ohio State has several would-be draft picks in Denzel Burke, TreVeyon Henderson, Donovan Jackson, JT Tuimoloau, Jack Sawyer, Tyliek Williams, Jordan Hanco*ck, and Lanthan Ramson all returning after Ohio State’s NIL collectives spent a reported $10 million this winter. There’s no way they all would have stayed without NIL. That’s an entire NFL team’s worth of draft picks (8) staying in school from just one (extremely loaded) college team.

The league will adapt because it has to. Bill Walsh hated the idea that a draft was “bad”, his team only needed to find players, it didn’t matter to him what the rest of the league thought about the rest of the draft. Teams like the Ravens and Rams won’t care if people think it’s a bad draft, they’ll believe, with good reason, that their scouts can find the talent in any round in any draft.

But the shallow draft won’t affect the Eagles ability to trade up from 22. If they do so, they’ll be giving up 50 or 53, and at some positions the draft is still really deep there.

What’s the worst possible day 1 scenario for the Eagles? - ces1842

At 16 the Seahawks are on the clock and with seven picks to go the Eagles have six players they like left on the board, all are either OT or CB. They try to trade up but get outbid by someone else who takes an OT or CB; or they have five players left and the Bills outbid them to jump the Jaguars for a WR. Either way, with the Jaguars on the clock at 17 there are five players the Eagles like left and there are five picks before they are on the clock, and no one wants to play ball in a trade. The Jaguars (CB), Bengals (OT or CB), Rams (OT or CB), Steelers (OT), and Dolphins (OT) take the five players they like, and at 22 they are out of 1st round targets.

This seems unlikely to me. The Eagles have the 50th pick to offer, only two teams drafting behind them with a better add-on pick to offer are the Packers, who draft at 25 and 41; and the Cardinals, who draft at 27 and 35, if either of them move up it’s likely to take a defender. If the Seahawks are moving back, they are probably not trading with division rivals, so it would be either the Eagles or Packers. Even if the Packers move up, the Jaguars need a WR having not replaced Calvin Ridley, taking Brian Johnson Jr. if he’s on the board that could easily be the pick; the Rams could draft just about any position; the Steelers just drafted an OT at 14 last year, they seem like a landing spot for either Jackson Powers-Johnson or Graham Barton. At 22 the Eagles probably have at least one player they are targeting on the board.

How likely is it that another team’s war room is caught on video cheering wildly after the Eagles make a pick? -Relayer2112

Low chance, but I’ll call the shot. At 22 they take Amarius Mims, the Cowboys draft room cheers it, and at 24 Dallas takes Tyler Guyton.

We have 3 5th round picks and there is no way we use all of them. We have 0 picks in the 3rd. What kind of trades can we expect to see? - The_Roots

Shameless plug alert.

Why is there a “push” for a WR? Maybe it’s just being on blogs and some media hype. I can see if it’s after round 5, but we have two studs, and the WR3 room has some talent we have to sort through in camp. But I’m not seeing the need to go high for a WR. - JoeyIroc

AJ Brown and Devonta Smith are the only WRs under contract past this year, and it’s a deep WR draft. I’m not opposed to drafting one as high as in the 2nd round because of the talent that should be there. More likely they take a day three WR who can see the field as a deep threat, Anthony Gould and Jacob Cowing ran sub-4.4 40s. They’ve also had Ainias Smith in for a visit and were scheduled to have Brenden Rice but it got canceled.

Let’s say we draft someone of the “Short term RG, long term RT” ilk in Round 1 (Fuaga, Fautanu, Latham). In that scenario, the best case is the rookie wins the RG job, and Tyler Steen becomes a swing tackle with potentially some flexibility to play guard in a pinch.

Question: that’s the profile of we got from Big V, and to a lesser extent Jack Driscoll. I think we were all pretty happy with the value we got from Big V in that role as a 5th rounder. Driscoll as a fourth rounder, people were less enthusiatic, but he also wasn’t as good as Big V. Steen was an early third rounder. Would we still be happy with value if we’re getting another Big V quality player? O Line depth is super important and flexibility is a huge plus. - CV Eagles

Yes. Lane Johnson hasn’t played a full season since 2015, Jordan Mailata missed three games in 2021 and 2022, Cam Jurgens missed 5 last year, Landon Dickerson missed one. Backup OL is going to play in 2024. The easiest way to derail a season is to have an injured OL with no quality depth (see: 2020).

When a player is drafted we immediately dream of the best outcome they could have and not the median or most likely outcome. You’d like to see the 65th pick be more than just a solid backup, but that’s actually a respectable outcome. Over 250 players are drafted every year, and half of them aren’t good enough for the NFL.

Steen was the first OL drafted in the 3rd round in 2023. Here are his recent yearly counterparts:

• 2022 Joshua Ezeudu, Giants: Started two games at LG midway through the season in 2022 then got hurt, in 2023 began the season as a backup again, started five games at LT, then got hurt again.
• 2021: Jalen Mayfield, Falcons: Started 16 games as a rookie in 2021, missed all of 2022 on IR, bounced between the practice squad and active roster for the Giants in 2023.
• 2020: Damien Lewis, Seahawks: started 61 of 61 games in four years at left and right guard and filled in as emergency center. Signed as a free agent with the Panthers this offseason.
• 2019: Michael Deiter, Dolphins: started 15 games as a rookie at guard, never started a game in his second year. He’s on his third team in as many seasons.
• 2018: Brandon Parker, Raiders: spent five seasons as a backup or on IR with the Raiders, signed a one year deal with no guarantees with the 49ers this offseason.

Steen was also the 7th OT drafted that year.

• 2022: Abraham Lucas, Seahawks (72nd overall): Started every game he has played at right tackle, but missed 10 games in 2023 due to injury.
• 2021: Jackson Carman, Bengals (46th): Started 10 games as a rookie, has been a backup ever since.
• 2020: Ezra Cleveland, Vikings (58th): Started 49 games for the Vikings at guard then was traded at the deadline to the Jaguars for a 6th round pick.
• 2019: Max Scharping, Texans (55th): Started 33 games for the Texans over three seasons, has spent the past two as a backup for the Bengals.
• 2018: Orlando Brown, Ravens (83rd): Four time Pro Bowler.

That’s a small snapshot but the first thing that stands out is how many of these guys get hurt. If Steen has a Big V-like career where he backs up an elite duo then takes a pay day somewhere, that’s a disappointment for the 65th round pick but not a total miss.

My favorite Eagles draft was 2002 selecting Lito.Shepherd and Sheldon Brown. Any chance we get a CB in the first and second round again?

Lots of talk about using one of our 2nd round picks to move up in the first, but what about moving up from the 2nd into the first and getting 2 first round picks?

What was your favorite Eagles draft?

What’s your favorite color? - phunkenstein7

I don’t see them doubling in the 1st and 2nd at CB, but one in the first two rounds and then another on day three, I could see that happening. Trading up for Quinyon Mitchell or Terrion Arnold then in the 5th the best player on the board is a slot corner, that’s possible.

I think the more likely scenarios are either they draft just one, not in the 1st round, and give Keele Ringo and Eli Ricks a chance to to step up; or they don’t draft one at all and make a trade for a veteran after the draft, maybe in May, maybe in August. Isaiah Rodgers not being reinstated this week had to have been a disappointment and may increase their desire to make a trade later in the year if he remains suspended. But this week, I would be surprised if they added two.

They don’t have the draft picks to move up for another 1st rounder. The Commanders at 36 and 40 do and I expect them to move up; and the Panthers at 33 and 39 could move too. There have only been three times a team traded from the 1st round to the 50s, one of those was when the Ravens traded up to the Eagles at 32 to take Lamar Jackson. The others were:

2011: 28 for 56, 2012 1st

2013: 29 for 52, 83, 102, 220

Howie Roseman either doesn’t have that to offer (2013) or isn’t offering that (2011).

Everyone loved the 2012 draft when it happened. But for both at the time and in hindsight, I loved the 2016 draft. At the time I was all on board with the “screw it, we’re going for a QB” attack they made in multiple trades, and of course without that draft they don’t win the Super Bowl.

Color? Midnight green is pretty good. For two color combo though it’s orange and black. Go Flyers.

This draft, compared to recent years, seems to have the least amount of hype leading up to it that I can remember - what do you attribute this to? Late pick? Only 1 1st-round pick? Knowing we might make the un-sexy OT pick who sits for a year? Just a poor draft class relative to others? - Kephas

A combination of all of those, and the last three 1st rounders have not been starters. Since 2016 the Eagles have drafted 14 players in the 1st or 2nd round, and just three of them, Carson Wentz, Jalen Reagor, and Devonta Smith, were Week 1 starters. Can’t fault anyone for not getting excited about using high picks on players who have to wait their turn.

And excitement is what this week is really about. The league has turned what used to be a conference meeting into an entertaining TV spectacle. This draft might not be very exciting for the Eagles though.

Let’s say they pick an OT at 22, or trade up for one. Even the biggest backers of that–and depend on who they take I would probably be one of them–will agree that it isn’t exciting. Teams moving around for quarterbacks is exciting. Wide receivers are exciting. In most drafts the pass rushers are exciting. Offensive linemen, as crucial as they are, are just not needle movers for events. “With the 20th pick in the 2024 draft, the Pittsburgh Steelers select Jackson Powers-Johnson, center, Oregon” is going to have a lot of people go “I stayed up for that?”

Which is yet another reason why the Eagles should trade up for an offensive lineman. First, trading up is exciting, no matter what happens with the pick, just the rush of suddenly being on the board is fun. And second, if they’re going to draft a guy who will start the season potentially as a backup to elite players, getting it over sooner rather than later lets us all get on with our night quicker.

Let’s assume Howie gets busy on the phones. How likely is it that the Eagles trade away somebody on the roster? Realistically, which players are the most likely to be dealt and why? - mofwood

I do not see the Eagles trading a player for a pick during the draft for two reasons. One, if a player for a pick trade was on the table they’d have done it already. Every time Howie Roseman has traded a player for a pick before summer workouts, he’s done it in the first week of free agency. Player trades in April aren’t Howie Roseman’s style, he typically makes them in March, May, August, or October.

Two, I don’t see anyone on the roster that the Eagles would get called about during the draft. If Roseman trades a player for a pick, it’ll be a player in the final year of his contract. The Eagles current free agents for 2025 are mostly either players signed to one year deals this offseason such as Devin White, DeVante Parker, and Oren Burks; those players are obviously not getting traded. Or they are draft picks in the final year of their contract such as Milton Williams, Marlon Tuipulotu, and Zech McPhearson. If any of those types of players are traded, it’ll be in August when it’s clear they have little or no role to play on the team.

If you could trade other NFL Team-related elements for draft picks, what would you trade? (e.g. mascots, stadiums, X-place schedules, fight songs, etc.) - Kephas

I think teams should be able to trade cap space for draft picks, similar to Allocated Money in MLS but without all the confusion, have a set price for each pick. But that’s not going to happen.

We’ve seen coaches traded for draft picks (Jon Gruden from the Raiders to the Buccaneers) or effectively traded when the league awarded a draft pick as compensation (Bill Parcells from the Patriots to the Jets, then Bill Belichick from the Jets to the Patriots, Jonathan Gannon to the Cardinals). Let’s have more of that, let teams trade for assistant coaches. The Eagles could have traded for Vic Fangio instead of annoying the league. Maybe we’ll get another last minute compensation announcement like we got last year with Gannon.

In March of 2018 Doug Pederson played Sean Payton in a round of golf and the winner got to pick who wore the primary and who wore the whites when they played each other. Doug won. How about a blind auction between the Eagles and Packers where the team giving up the highest pick gets to not wear the hated green jersey when they play in Brazil?

Will the NFL pause the draft to help search for Kelce’s missing ring? Inquiring minds want to know. - BrotherlyLuv24

The draft already takes too long, so pausing it is not going to work. But I like your idea, as it has appeal to fans of all teams, this is a great way to keep people tuned in after their team has made their pick. I think it would be better to use the dead time between picks to cut to a live “search” for the ring (the ring would already be found and then re-hidden and the whole search staged so that the league can control when it is found, that’s how this stuff works), and when the networks want to go to their talking heads, put the feed in a small box in the corner. It’ll keep viewers tuned in.