Philly Front Office

It’s subjective for sure, but the 2017 Draft feels worse than 2014, 2015, and 2019. On paper, it probably wasn’t, but so much mental work was put in to convince ourselves that these were all actually good, smart picks. They weren’t and it set us back for years. The shocking part is that all of these guys received Super Bowl rings. Crazy that the season started with the draft in Philly and ended with a parade in Philly.

2021 Draft: The Howie Renaissance Begins

2020 Draft: A Tale of Two Jalens

2019 Draft: The Last of the Bad Drafts

The Draft

This was the Myles Garrett draft. He was a no-brainer at #1. The real fun began after that. The Bears swapped with the 49ers to go from #2 to #3 because people were apparently banging down the door to get Mitch Trubisky. They gave up 67, 111, and a future 3rd to do it too. Great move guys! It’s not like SF was doing great things down at #3 either, drafting bust Solomon Thomas. Tight ends from Stanford, great move. DTs, not so much. Jacksonville then drafted running back Leonard Fournette at #4. The Jets took a safety, Jamal Adams, at #6. The Panthers went with another running back, Christian McCaffrey, at #8. The Bengals went full Raiders and picked recently crowned fastest man, John Ross, at #9.

Why am I mechanically highlighting these guys specifically? Because Patrick Mahomes was taken #10 overall! 1 QB, 2 RBs, 3 WRs, and a S were all taken over one of the 5 greatest QBs of all time. Obviously no one knew he would be that good, but this is one of the main reasons why you don’t take these positions so early. Even if you hit on a guy like Jamal Adams or Christian McCaffrey, these guys were never able to move the needle for their teams. BTW, who scouted Trubisky and thought he was going to be that good? Probably the same guys who were out on TJ Watt.

There was a ton of serious high end talent in this draft. Besides Mahomes, Garrett, and McCaffrey being 3 likely Hall of Famers, there’s also Marshon Lattimore, Haasan Reddick, Marlon Humphrey, Tre-Davious White, TJ Watt, Budda Baker, Alvin Kamara, Cooper Kupp, Chris Godwin, Trey Hendrickson, George Kittle, and two-time Super Bowl winning kicker Jake Elliot. Aside from being some of the best in the NFL at some point, why are all these guys important? Because despite making 8 picks, none of these guys were selected by the Eagles.

Day 1

The Eagles had the 14th pick thanks to a fine rookie season by Carson Wentz. Just kidding! They didn’t have the 12th pick thanks to a fine rookie season by Carson Wentz. That pick has been traded to Cleveland for the rights to Wentz. They had the 14th pick because the Minnesota Vikings got completely desperate the previous season and traded for Sam Bradford after starting QB Teddy Bridgewater went down in preseason. The draft was being held in Philly and had it not been for this trade, the home team wouldn’t have had a pick on the first night.

Leading up the draft, the Eagles knew they needed to find a replacement for Jason Peters and needed to bolster their pass rush. Brandon Graham finally had the breakout season we were all waiting for, but he and Fletcher Cox seemed alone on the line. Local boy Haasan Reddick went at 13. In retrospect, none of the top Edge prospects panned out in this one except Garrett and Reddick and that was only after he seemed like a bust in Arizona. The crazy thing is that TJ Watt ended up going 30th to Pittsburgh and it was even considered an overdraft based on his name. Maybe taking Derek Barnett wasn’t so bad after all?

See what I mean about the mental gymnastics. Barnett was considered the safe bet coming out of Tennessee. Despite not having any elite skills, he broke the school sack record previously held by Reggie White. In the NFL though, he just never gave us what we wanted. He topped out at 6.5 sacks in 2019, but was always the guy getting penalties and screwing up. Nick Sirianni was famously caught mouthing “It’s always him” on camera. Things never got rolling for Barnett in Philly. He was one of those guys that just never fit right here. By the end, a break up was mutual. We’ll always have that fumble recovery in the Super Bowl Derek.

Day 2

At #43, the Eagles selected Sidney Jones out of Washington. I loved the pick. LOVED. IT. Jones was possibly the top corner in the draft but tore his Achilles during his pro day. Knowing he would have to sit out the season, it still looked like Eagles got a steal. He was young and would likely fully recover from the injury. While he did recover, he was never the same. A few more minor injuries ended his Eagles career after 3 seasons.

The Eagles were set to pick 74th, but earlier in April traded the pick to Baltimore for #99 and Timmy Jernigan. He is forgotten now, but Jernigan was one of those solid Eagles DTs that we take for granted, like Bennie Logan, Javon Hargrave, and eventually Milton Williams. It should be no surprise that the Ravens thought they needed to trade up for the pick considering there are 4 other bird themed teams and they took a guy named Wormley. The Eagles picked Rasul Douglas at 99. Douglas has turned into a solid pro, but he was anything but that as an Eagle, eventually getting waived and bouncing around through a few teams.

Day 3

All the Day 3 picks weren’t just bad, they were annoying too. Mack Hollins seemed like the perfect deep threat to put opposite Alshon Jeffrey. Even though we had just signed Torrey Smith, Hollins seemed like he could be a steal going forward due to great size and solid enough speed. Well, he never blossomed as an Eagle, no matter how often he didn’t wear shoes and rode his bike to work. Like a few guys in this draft, it wasn’t until after Philly that he blossomed.

Donnell Pumphrey was simply never good. This was supposed to be a draft heavy with running backs including Fournette, McCaffrey, Kamara, Joe Mixon, Dalvin Cook, James Connor, Kareem Hunt, Aaron Jones, and even Austin Ekeler who went undrafted. The Eagles desperately needed a running back but simply waited too long and were almost forced to take Pumphrey. He did set an NCAA record for rushing yards, but his combine results are about as bad as you could ever see. He wasn’t big, strong, explosive, or particularly fast. Everything that Saquon Barkley is, Pumphrey was not. He got hurt his rookie season, was cut, bounced around to a few practice squads, and I don’t think ever logged a snap in the NFL. Thankfully, the Eagles signed undrafted free agent Corey Clement that year, who was a revelation in the playoffs.

Shelton Gibson had his true believers amongst Philly fans who steadfastly think he just never got a fair chance. He is second all time at the combine in the 60 yard cone drill though, so he has that and 3 career receptions to hang his hat on. Elijah Qualls lasted just one season in the league.

Lastly, there’s Nate Gerry. “Whitesnake” would have been a lot cooler if he was actually good at anything. He wasn’t. That didn’t stop him from getting more snaps than he had any business getting. The fans hated Gerry and he become synonymous with the post-Super Bowl let down. He was something of a tweener between safety and LB but never had the body for either. The day he stopped being an Eagle was a good one.

In the End

We don’t think of this as a bad draft because we won the Super Bowl that year and had a great time having the Draft in Philly, but it was. This draft is a big reason why the team fell apart for the next few years. By focusing primarily on college stats in this one over talent and raw skill, the team just ran out of athleticism. The 2017 team was made up primarily of veterans. Once they got older, the team just lacked any young talent. It’s fun to think of what could have happened had we taken someone like Watt, Kamara, or Godwin, but we weren’t particularly close on any of them. Howie was still drafting from small schools and avoiding the big-time programs. Thankfully Clement ended up being a big pick up and Cincinatti drafted a kicker they had no use for allowing Jake Elliot to be an Eagle. If anything, Howie learned not to completely trust college production anymore. If a guy doesn’t have some type of trait to hang his hat on, they will never make it in the NFL. No one from this draft had anything like that.