Was the 2020 draft a successful draft?

[Procus]

The year of the Reagor-Justin Jefferson boondoogle.  We all know what happened, and it's been THE blackmark on Howie's career. (Note aside, you have to get a chuckle out of the fact that the Vikings are kind of screwed with Jefferson's contract and will have skew way too much of the cap to him - or possibly lose him).

2020 was also the year that Jalen Hurts was drafted.  And while the Eagles get excoriated for drafting Reagor over Jefferson, how about all of those other teams who drafted whoever they did over Jalen Hurts?  At the most important position.  2020 also brought K'Von Wallace, Jack Driscoll, Quez Watkins and Shaun Bradley who are still with the team.

Three years later, in my book, Eagles get a solid B+ for this draft.  For this era, the Reagor-Jeffereson boondoogle looks like a blessing in disguise given the Eagles salary cap situation.  For my money, AJ Brown is a much better number one receiver than Justin Jefferson would have been - just in terms of team chemistry alone.  Brown's locked up for four more years, and Minn. either has to sign JJ to an ungodly contract or let him walk - neither being good alternatives.

All in all, 20-20 hindsight, a very successful draft.

[FranklinFldEBUpper]

Basically 1 1/2 starters, with the "1" being a potential star at the most important position in sports. (Quez is the 1/2, btw.) Driscoll is a pretty good backup too. Wallace and Bradley aren't good and have survived this long probably only because they were draft picks.

I wouldn't call it "very" successful though objectively it wasn't terrible. It could/should have been so much more, however.

[Cochis_Calhoun]

The Reagor decision is right up there in the worst draft decisions of the last two decades, the idea that our salary cap situation means that it was good actually is ignoring that part of that cap situation is paying AJ the top WR contract that we could've given Jefferson had he come here to put up future HOF pace numbers his first 3 years, instead of drafting the worst WR in the first 3 rounds of the 2020 draft a pick ahead of him. The idea that the 2022 Offensive player of the year is less of a #1 WR is a reach honestly.

The Hurts pick was a great pick, any time you get a genuine top end starter out of a draft it's a good draft, but you don't have to throw glitter and perfume on the turd that was the first round pick to do it. He should've picked Jefferson, all the scouting said it, everyone watching that draft expected it and at this point I expect Howie freely admits he screwed that pick.

Your post is like the Titans congratulating themselves for drafting Kevin Dyson before Randy Moss in '98 because they got some special teamers in the third round and a really adequate swing tackle in the 4th (I have no idea if the Titans drafted a swing tackle in the 1998 draft).

[NOTW]

Hurts obviously turned out to be a good pick but the draft class and decisions made were failures otherwise.  Despite choosing him over Jefferson, Reagor was a bad pick regardless.  Howie was trying to draft speed instead of just choosing the right players. There were also other WRs in that class a lot of fans wanted, who could be had even in the 2nd round.  There were defensive players like Patrick Queen at LB they could have taken.  Howie has done poorly in the late 1st round, and better in the top of the 1st round where the pick is safer and easier to make.

Howie also used 4 draft picks - FOUR - on the WR position. Reagor, Watkins, Hightower and traded a pick to the 49ers for Marquise Goodwin.  This was a period of several years of bad drafting where he was figuring things out.  He went from drafting clones of current players to just drafting a single trait like speed.  (Thankfully he finally learned to stick to positions he drafts well and start picking from the SEC and championship teams).

[EazyEaglez]

Hard to call a draft full of failures a good draft, but it’s also hard to call a draft where they get a franchise quarterback bad either. Basically it all hinges on Jalen’s career now. 

[LacesOut]

B+ for that draft???!!! Too high. You’re grading on a curve, obviously. 

And no way would I label it a ‘very successful’ draft. You have your Eagles goggles on with those high praise comments, IMO.

[brkmsn]

Everybody can put a spin on it and everybody can rationalize any grade, but at this point, I don't really care. Is it more important to have good grades for drafts, off-seasons, roster positions, etc.. or to simply do whatever is necessary to put together a team where everybody buys in, wants to be here and together be something special?

You have to take some chances. There are never guarantees. There will be justifiable criticisms (like Reagor), warranted praise from picks (like Smith), and the occasional criticism that proves ignorant (like Hurts). People need something to talk or write about. 

Since this topic is specifically about the Eagles' 2020 draft class, maybe we should measure the misses to the hits. We got Reagor (at #21) and passed on Jefferson, Higgins, Aiyuk. That decision led to drafting Smith the following year and acquiring Brown the year after. Two positive moves were an indirect result of the failure of the Reagor pick as well as the JJAW pick in 2019. We needed good WRs and now we have them. 

Obviously in the 2nd round (#53) we drafted Hurts, a mostly unpopular selection in the eyes of Eagles fans. At #53, this turned out to be tremendous value for a franchise QB. That is the direct result of the pick. The indirect result is how this helps the team with other roster moves. Are people wanting to play for the Eagles because of Hurts? Even if Reagor had panned out, I seriously doubt you'd see this type of thing happening . In fact, you don't really see it happening with any of the WRs from that draft. As good as Jefferson is, he hasn't really elevated that team. They were pretty much the same when Diggs was the guy. 

Even though he was on the PS last season, we still have D. Taylor as well. So Bradley and Taylor will both get to compete for playing time at LB this season. We also went heavily at speed in that draft. Reagor was the first WR we picked, followed by Hightower and Watkins. Watkins is still here and still the current WR3. Driscoll has been a valuable reserve because he can play 4 positions on the line. He'll likely get a big contract in free agency from some needy team after this season which is why Steen was drafted this year. 

[eaglesfan0075]

I think the problem is that you're asking the question of whether the 2020 draft is a success or not, but then are justifying your assessment of the 2020 draft primarily on personnel decisions that have been made in subsequent drafts, some of which are in response to disappointing picks from 2020 (Devonta Smith in 2021 over Micah Parsons and others, and trading for AJ Brown in 2022 with a 1st and 4th round pick along with a new contract; the Eagles missed on Reagor and JJAW with 1st and 2nd round picks in 2019 and 2020 respectively, making it 4 consecutive draft classes where a premium pick was used on a WR with only 2 of them being worth it).

If you are grading it in a vacuum and looking at how those specific players are impacting the team 3 years after the selections have been made, you have one elite player in Hurts, who was a steal in the 2nd round, a solid high end backup/swing starter OL in Jack Driscoll in the 4th round, and an average WR3 with deep threat speed but inconsistent hands in Quez Watkins in the 6th round. The other picks are either busts or otherwise hard to tell based on limited playing time so far.

That being said, I'd say the successes give this draft at least a C+ if not a B, but definitely not a D or F.

[RememberTheKoy]

19 hours ago, FranklinFldEBUpper said:

Basically 1 1/2 starters, with the "1" being a potential star at the most important position in sports. (Quez is the 1/2, btw.) Driscoll is a pretty good backup too. Wallace and Bradley aren't good and have survived this long probably only because they were draft picks.

I wouldn't call it "very" successful though objectively it wasn't terrible. It could/should have been so much more, however.

 

I don't think we need to say Hurts is a potential star.  He is a star.  It has occurred.  

[time2rock]

You'll never convince me that we are in a better position now (or will ever) from having drafted Reagor over Jefferson.  Thank goodness the Hurts pick panned out (**knock on wood** so far) otherwise that draft would be right up there with '17 (Barnett, Jones, Douglas, Hollins, Pumphrey, Gibson, Gerry, Qualls) and right behind '19 (Dillard, Sanders, JJAW, Miller, Thorson) as far as recent drafts go.  

[PoconoDon]

As a draft class, it's currently a quite generous C- from me, even if individually Hurts is an A or A+ moving forward. The rest of the draft class is nothing special.

There have been a good number of A graded drafts over the years, but I've only seen one A+ draft in my lifetime, and that was the Steelers getting 4 HOF'ers in one draft back in 1974.

To me, that is the "100 on the test", and standard for an A+ grade. 

[beto_eagles]

I think this draft was the turning point. Not only because the Eagles got a star QB, but also because it was the ultimate lesson for Howie.

He passed on JJ because he didn't have much experience playing outside and went with the "better fit/need" in Reagor. It proved to be a terrible mistake no matter how you put it. You could have had arguably the best WR in the league without trading up and bottled it

However, the second pick was the total opposite. The Eagles already had a "proven" QB, but the value on their board was too good to pass on Hurts. Howie goes for it and we all hate the decision at the moment. Three years later, it looks like the best pick he's ever made. 

He learned the lesson and has really committed to BPA since then, which has resulted in two excellent drafts.

[EaglesAddict]

How could you forget Davion Taylor...HOF'er for sure!   This year has to be his last shot at, you know, making people remember he's still on the team.

[opa-opa]

Looking back that was a mediocre draft for the whole league overall, there wasnt much great talent beyond the top 15 or so except for Jefferson.

[Philthy Jawn]

If we had drafted both Jefferson and Hurts, that draft arguably would have gone down as the greatest in team history.

[eagle45]

Qb success is unique.  It involves coaching, OL, wrs, system, etc.  

A good qb draft decision (Hurts) or a bad one (Wentz) involve so much more than draft decision-making.  It’s almost its own entity.  
 

Seems unfair to remove Hurts from the equation, but the non qb component of that draft was obviously bad.

[ManchesterEagle]

For me Hurts alone makes this an A draft. 

The Eagles had the 21st pick in the draft and ended up with the best quarterback in the NFC without having to give up any future draft capital. 

I’m pretty sure any team without a top 10 quarterback would be delighted with that outcome, even if they did end up with Jalen Reagor.