"Silver lining following Cowboys loss" 12/27 Mock

[eaglesfan0075]

Now that the Eagles have clinched a top 10 pick, we can focus on how to best re-build this team.

In this scenario, I have the Eagles keeping Wentz because of his large contract not yielding much in trade value. 

Howie Roseman and Doug Pederson do stick around, but Jeff Lurie forces them to give up some responsibility and pushes for outside voices after a losing season:

 

(Going with the same GM and coaches from my last revised mock. No major changes here, so skip past this part if you already saw my last mock)

Andy Weidl promoted to GM and Howie gets a new title with a pay bonus but less responsibility (back to the basement) - Weidl was already "in charge of setting up the draft board" this past year per reports, but Howie reportedly made the final calls and supposedly overruled Weidl + the scouts if he wanted someone else than who they reportedly recommended (Jalen Reagor over Justin Jefferson, Jalen Hurts over Jeremy Chinn, etc...) Let's see how good our scouts really are with Weidl truly running the show now, and maybe we already have our legit traditional GM on the team?

Jim Hostler (Washington Football Team WR Coach) hired as OC - Hostler was the Ravens WR coach from 2008-2013, overlapping with Weidl's time in Baltimore. He has a lot of positional coaching experience in the NFL (13 years WR coach, 2 years TE coach, 3 years QB coach) and some coordinator experience as well (49ers OC in 2007, Packers passing game coordinator in 2018) on top of college football coaching experience as an OC, RBs coach, WR coach, and even LB coach. He's a Western PA native, so there may be some appeal to come back to his home state as an offensive coordinator.

Teryl Austin (Steelers Senior Defensive Assistant/Secondary Coach) hired as DC as Jim Schwartz's contract is not renewed - Austin was the Ravens secondary coach from 2011-2013 and has 5 years experience as a coordinator with the Lions and Bengals running the 4-3. He did very well his first year with the Lions, with the team ranking 1st in rushing yards allowed, 2nd in yards per game allowed, 3rd in points allowed, and 13th in pass yards allowed. His 2nd year was average and 3rd year was below average with the Lions. After a terrible 3 game stretch with the Bengals with 500+ yards given, his stint in Cincinnati was cut short to 1 season. Now he's rehabbing his image with the Steelers and could be looking to jump on a DC job. He's also a Western PA native, so he may very well be happy staying in Pittsburgh, but still worth reaching out to and gauging interest.

 

Trades:

Zach Ertz to the Packers for 2021 4th round pick - Unfortunately I don't think we can squeeze a 2nd/3rd round pick out of Ertz at this time, maybe if he was moved at the trade deadline we could have, but we settle for a 4th rounder here.

Malik Jackson to the Seahawks for 2021 7th round pick - Simply a salary dump trade here, lucky to get a 7th in return.

 

Draft:

Round 1: Patrick Surtain II CB Alabama  -  The Eagles haven't drafted a CB in the first round since 2002 and it clearly shows in the front office's desperate attempts to fill the void with other team's veteran players. Very seldom did that strategy work out for this team, but now Darius Slay has some help on the other side. Surtain has great bloodlines as his father was a 3x Pro Bowl CB himself in the NFL for the Dolphins.

Round 2: Asante Samuel Jr. CB Florida State - Speaking of the Eagles 2002 draft and players with great bloodlines, here we double-dip at the cornerback position and draft the son of Asante Samuel, who was the last CB the Eagles paid big money to in free agency and actually lived up to his contract. Samuel Jr. has shown better tackling ability than his father in college but also possesses the playmaking ability that made Asante Samuel a household name. He's a bit on the shorter side for an outside CB at 5'10, but has played mostly on the outside at Florida State. In the short-term he would be an upgrade over our current nickel CB situation while Slay and Surtain man the outside spots, while in the long term he projects to the CB2 spot opposite Surtain.

Round 3: Paris Ford S Pittsburgh - Ford is an interchangeable FS/SS prospect, which is what the Eagles like in their safeties. Continuing with the 2002 draft theme, the Eagles come away with 2 new starting CBs and a starting safety with their first three picks to rebuild this secondary. Ford showed skill in both run support as well as in coverage. Jalen Mills could move to third safety or CB if K'Von Wallace also emerges as a starter in year 2.

Round 4 (GB): Nico Collins WR Michigan - The Eagles invested three draft picks in 2020 on adding speed to the WR position in Jalen Reagor, John Hightower, and Quez Watkins. All three return in 2021 to push for playing time along with Travis Fulgham and Greg Ward who also return. DeSean Jackson, Alshon Jeffrey, and JJAW are shown the door, and there is now an opening at the XWR position. Fulgham gets the first crack at it given his success there before, but Collins has the size at 6'4 and 222 lbs to be used in red-zone packages right away as a rookie.

Round 5: (DAL) Zamir White RB Georgia - White has a short stocky build at 5'11 and 215 lbs to be the complementary power back to Miles Sanders and Boston Scott.

Round 6: Joshua Kaindoh DE Florida State - Kaindoh has great size at 6'7 and 265 lbs to play at 4-3 DE, but is still a raw developmental prospect. An ankle injury ended his season early but he should be back in time to contribute to the DE rotation.

Round 7: James Empey C BYU - The Eagles have some young developmental prospects at OT in Jordan Mailata, Andre Dillard, Jack Driscoll, and Prince Tega-Wanogho, not to mention swing tackle Matt Pryor (who should really stick to backup RG). What they don't have is a young developmental prospect at C behind Jason Kelce (unless the plan is to move Isaac Seumalo to center, which would create a hole at guard). Empey has decent size at 6'4 and 300 lbs and blocked for one of the top QB prospects in the country in Zach Wilson.

Round 7 (SEA): Josh Pederson TE UL Monroe -  I noticed Pederson popped up on another Eagles mock here on the EMB and have to agree with the selection here. If this team is going to draft players who are the sons of former NFL players, they'll probably also draft the son of their current head coach as well. Fortunately, Josh Pederson has some upside as a receiving TE prospect and can compete for the TE2 spot as a rookie.

[Ray75]

All in on fixing this secondary, right?!

I like it, although personally I wouldn’t necessarily use my second rounder on another CB.

I’d lean towards going safety (Moehrig), receiver (St.Brown, Marshall), edge or linebacker (Bolton, Moses, Collins) there.

But if one thing is clear after the game last night is that we definitely need an infusion of talent in the secondary.

[b_west3]

I love it honestly.  We need one of those Sheppard/Brown drafts again to solidify what might be the worst secondary in the league.  

[jsdarkstar]

Not enough help for the O Line. 

While the secondary is a major concern, 3 picks in a row?

[eaglesfan0075]

You can certainly argue for using one of those three picks outside the secondary, but I went into this draft with the theme of turning one of our weakest areas into a potential strength given the strength of this draft class at both CB and S.

Sure the offense can use a lot of help, namely at OL and WR, but we have invested a lot of draft capital on those positions these past two draft classes. Some of these guys should probably have the opportunity to compete for a spot as guys like Jason Peters won't be back next year (I think?). Jordan Mailata has shown enough promise to justify having him compete with Andre Dillard coming off injury for the LT spot and I liked what I have seen so far from Jack Driscoll at RT when he was healthy and filled in for Lane Johnson. Sure, we have guys like Matt Pryor and Nate Herbig that have zero business starting on our OL, but I'd give Mailata, Dillard, Driscoll, Tega-Wanogho, etc. another year to evaluate and develop under Jeff Stoutland. We also just drafted 3 WRs after burning a 2nd round pick in 2019 on JJAW. It's safe to call JJAW a bust (and he should be cut), but the jury is still out on Reagor, Hightower, and Watkins, not to mention that we still have our reliable slot man in Greg Ward and surprise contributor in Travis Fulgham on the roster.

Not a menacing group I understand, but not as bad as our CB picture after Darius Slay, who isn't getting any younger either. Watching Michael Jacquet being bullied all evening was brutal to watch. I don't think Jalen Mills would do that much better, he'd probably get burnt by a double move or get caught up in DPI. Avonte Maddox is a nickel CB or backup S at best.

As far as CB is concerned, we haven't drafted one of those in the 1st round since 2002. Furthermore, the last two CBs we drafted with early picks (Sidney Jones and Rasul Douglas, our 2nd and 3rd round picks in 2017) are now on other teams because they couldn't develop into reliable starters here. We have a 7th round CB starting at S in Jalen Mills and I don't see Rodney McLeod coming back in free agency, even though he played decent before getting hurt. As evidenced by the Cowboys game, our pass rush from the DL can only do so much when our secondary is so weak. Poor coverage turns potential sacks into big completions. Solid coverage helps convert those pressures into sacks.

You could alternatively make an argument for Micah Parsons at LB in the first round as the Eagles haven't taken a LB in the 1st round since 1979 (some will argue Marcus Smith but he was drafted as a DE and moved to 3-4 LB under Chip Kelly). If you think Parsons is the next Luke Kuechly, you make that selection in the top 10, and we can certainly use a stud like that to elevate the whole unit's play, even with the promising play of Alex Singleton and the fact we invested multiple draft picks on LB in 2020. We have special teams LB prospects like Duke Riley getting starter minutes right now. That should also change at some point, but I went with a strategy that I felt would help the team the fastest in the short run. Our DL is the strength of our defense and we should try to focus on improving the other two units unless the value is just too darn good to pass up in the draft.

[20dawk4life]

On 12/28/2020 at 1:09 AM, Ray75 said:

All in on fixing this secondary, right?!

I like it, although personally I wouldn’t necessarily use my second rounder on another CB.

I’d lean towards going safety (Moehrig), receiver (St.Brown, Marshall), edge or linebacker (Bolton, Moses, Collins) there.

But if one thing is clear after the game last night is that we definitely need an infusion of talent in the secondary.

The pass rush will never get better if the secondary doesn’t improve. We have god knows how much money tied up in the dline and invested a first round pick in Barnett. We are second in the league in sacks I think and still teams have time to burn us. Secondary desperately needs to improve.
 

So does LB so I’d like to see some added players there. 

[ibleedgreen1990]

Not sure I love investing first and second round picks at corner. We still have Slay and one is either going to only play in certain situations or sit on the bench. Dont like that being the plan for a second round pick. That said I like the players. Also really like Bolton and Kaindoh. Not a lot of drafts with those names on them. Would love to see them in Eagles green.

[Rob331]

On 12/28/2020 at 3:05 PM, jsdarkstar said:

Not enough help for the O Line. 

While the secondary is a major concern, 3 picks in a row?

Darkstar - we look at this differently. With Mailata/Dillard, Seumalo, Kelce, Brooks, and Johnson starting with Driscoll, and Herbig as primary backups I think we're ok. The only caveat is the possibility of Kelce retiring. 

We have bigger needs at CB (LeBlanc and Robey-Coleman are FA's), LB (Gerry and Riley are FA's), DE (Curry is a FA and we don't have the money to re-sign Barnett), and safety (Mills and Ford are FA's).