The entire NFL screwed up by letting the Eagles win the draft so easily

The NFL Draft, by design, should be a fairly simple process. The league orders the teams from worst to best, giving the most-needy franchises the best opportunity to select college football’s worst players. Easy, right? It sure should be! Except somehow 31 others teams let the Eagles rob them blind over three days.

Philadelphia was always going to be in an amazing position. When the runner-up in the Super Bowl is sitting in the No. 10 spot because of past trades, it’s already a sign that the league should be on notice. What happened from there was entirely in the hands of everyone else, and time and time again the Eagles found ludicrous value in this class.

The Eagles made seven picks across the entire draft. Every single player was on our big board of the top 200 prospects in this class. That just shouldn’t happen — but it gets even more ludicrous from there. If you compare the Eagles’ class against the board, the team’s average pick was 75. Not only did they get seven of the best 200 players, but they actually fell inside the top 75.

This is absolutely unheard of. It’s impossibly good. Yes, we’re comparing to our big board metric here — but we trust our talent evaluation. Sure, you can argue that Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith helped wreck the curve, but by comparison the Texans who took C.J. Stroud and Will Anderson Jr. in the first round (No. 8 and No. 1 on our board, respectively), took two players who weren’t in the top 200 at all, and if we intentionally break the math and count those players at a value of 200, the Texans still averaged 103 on the board — and they had one of the next best classes after Philadelphia.

So, what does this all mean? Obviously Howie Roseman played his draft board like a piano, while helping to turn the Eagles defense into a hilarious Georgia-filled meme. For the second straight year Philadelphia took the best defensive tackle in the class, and a falling linebacker who should have never been available. How does this all plug in?

It begins with Jalen Carter. This was one of the most tumultuous pre-draft processes we’ve ever seen for a player who was set to be a top 3 lock. The legal trouble swirling at the combine, paired with rumors about his work ethic and drive, forced, quite legitimately, one of the most talented defensive tackle prospects we’ve seen since Warren Sapp down the board to No. 9. Pairing him with Jordan Davis is just unfair, and if there are any concerns about his character then the Eagles defense has the personalities on it to put a young player in his place and get him on track.

It was a home run pick.

Then there was a clear need for an additional pass rusher. As this process began it felt like Nolan Smith was a hand-meet-glove fit, where he could learn across from Haason Reddick, who his game so closely resembles. This made so much sense that most people assumed the Eagles would take him at No. 10, but somehow the perfect scheme/trait fit for the Eagles was there at No. 30.

Another home run pick.

Tyler Steen is up next, who the Eagles got at the top of the third. Offensive line isn’t an immediate need for Philly — especially when the only looming issues are an aging Lane Johnson and Jason Kelce’s last ride. Those aren’t small concerns, but not problems you remotely hope to fix in round three. Steen is an extremely athletic offensive tackle prospect who is rough around the edges in technique. Might be the only shaky pick when it comes to draft spot vs. value, but really not bad.

We can talk about all these great picks, but let’s zero in one one: How in the hell was Kellee Ringo still on the board at pick 105? Ringo was the No. 38 player on our big board. Sure, a year ago he was pegged to be a top 15 pick and one of the first corners off the board, which didn’t materialize because he didn’t build off his 2021 season — but who cares? If the knock against Ringo was “well, he got burned by Marvin Harrison Jr.,” then guess what? EVERYONE got burned by Marvin Harrison Jr. When he gets to the NFL pros are going to be burned by Marvin Harrison Jr.

The Eagles got a starting-caliber corner in the fourth round of the draft. Not just starting caliber, but high starting caliber. There’s no pressure for him to start immediately, giving him a season to adjust and be unleashed on the NFL.

This is the kind of draft that builds not just winning football teams, but potential dynasties. Eagles fans should be over the moon.

The Seahawks are kind of the poor man’s Eagles to me. Another team that’s really, really good — drafting way about where they should because of past trades. They’re just not on Philly’s level yet, because as constructed they haven’t shown an ability to go deep in the playoffs.

That could change with this draft. I love what this team did. Devon Witherspoon was a curious pick over Christian Gonzalez, but I learned long ago not to doubt Seattle when it comes to finding defensive backs. The place is a factory for finding and building talent in the secondary.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba had no business falling as far as he did, and it’s another fearsome weapon for Geno Smith’s incredible comeback tour.

I’ll tell you how I’m excited for though: RB Zach Charbonnet. Witherspoon and JSN were known quantities to most fans, but Charbonnet has major shades of Breece Hall to his game. I absolutely loved Hall a year ago, and feel the same way about this pick. Sneaky chance to really bust out and make people wonder how he lasted.

You know when you go to the grocery store to buy something, then forget what you were there for? You end up stumbling around, cramming random things in the cart hoping it’ll jog your memory. Then you get home with a bunch of assorted crap? That’s how I feel about the Packers draft.

Lukas Van Ness is good. He’s fine. He’s good and fine. Still, I don’t think that was the direction to lead this draft when there was a potential to add an impact receiver for Jordan Love. The two tight ends this team drafted are quantity over quality, and anyone drafting Sean Clifford needs to have their phone revoked like a teenager caught drinking underage. They can’t be trusted.

The good in this class is Jayden Reed. I love that pick, but surrounding it with a bunch of “meh” really doesn’t do much for me.

The Lions went from being one of the laughing stocks of the draft following night one, and turned out a surprisingly great draft class.

Opinion will split wildly on Hendon Hooker, which really could be the pivot point of this draft. There’s a slim chance he can become a good quarterback, though there’s been a lot of focus on his age and ACL tear, without enough discussion about how Tennessee’s offense can’t translate to the NFL — making for a mammoth learning curve.

Still, from top to bottom this was a solid group of talent that fills a variety of needs. Brian Branch is really the gem of all this, and it will be interesting to see whether he sticks long-term as a nickel corner or a safety. Either way he was incredible value in the 2nd round.

Sam LaPorta was also a great pick to replace T.J. Hockenson, who the Lions traded away last year. The upside is different, but I think LaPorta has potential to become a lateral switch in talent, just getting Detroit younger.

This is going to be a long, difficult process as the Rams recover from their win-now season. Los Angeles needed numerous talent upgrades all over their roster, and took Stetson Bennett.

I like the picks of Steve Avila and Byron Young, but back to Bennett for a sec... what exactly was the idea here? Was this a Fallout-esque Vault-Tec experiment to drop Bennett in Los Angeles and see what would happen? It’s an impossibly weird landing spot that seems based entirely on “He went to Georgia so this will work with Matthew Stafford.”

It’s not like the Rams had a lot of draft capital to work with as they continue to pay back their trades, but I’m struggling to find a lot of players who will stick long term.