Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

Draft Visits Update

Posted March 29th, 2026 | No Comments »

The draft is now less than a month away. Most of the work is done, but teams are still bringing players in for visits and/or meeting with them. Let’s talk about that and take a look at what info the visits give us.

Teams are looking for every possible edge when it comes to the draft. Every pick can be a franchise-changer, in a good or bad way. If you get the wrong guy, you’ve wasted a valuable resource and have a hole in your roster. If you hit a home run, you’ve got good young talent at a cheap price for four or five years. That’s invaluable. Just think about the Eagles getting Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean in the same draft. That was huge.

Meeting with players is a way to get an extra bit of information. The scouts have already graded the players. This is a way to get a bit more info. Some visits are for medical reasons. The Eagles medical staff might want to get a better feel for an injury situation. There is also the benefit of getting a better feel for the prospect as a person. About a decade ago the Eagles brought in a prospect for a visit. He clashed with the assistant coach he met. The coach called Big Dom and told him to take the player right back to the airport. That meeting told the coach the player wasn’t right for the Eagles.

The scouting process has several layers.

Regular season games
Visits to the schools
All star games
Scouting Combine
Pro Days
30 visits / meetings

Scouts go to games and practices during the season to gather the bulk of the information. They do a lot of character research as well as tape study. They will talk to all kinds of people to get a feel for the prospect. This is mainly background info and not direct interaction with the players.

All star games used to be an important source of info for player/team meetings. That has changed in the last five years. The games now set up formal meetings so that every single player meets every single team. If you want to know if the Eagles met with someone at the Senior Bowl the answer is yes, all of them. The meetings involve mostly scouts. Some teams do send their coaching staff, but that is done less than in the past.

Combine meetings involve the head coach, GM and scouts. They are short meetings because there are 350 prospects and 32 teams. Teams can’t meet every player. The focus is often on underclassmen since the team didn’t scout them as thoroughly during the regular season and wasn’t able to meet them at an all star game.

Pro Days are important when you see members of the coaching staff involved. Area scouts and personnel people go to Pro Days as part of their job. It isn’t news that an Eagles scout was at the Miami Pro Day. That’s expected. It is newsworthy when DL coach Clint Hurtt is there. That shows special interest.

You will hear about players meeting with teams at their Pro Days. This can be a meeting to get some additional info on a player and show genuine interest. It could also be something as simple as a scout verifying a prospect’s phone number because he could be a UDFA target for the team and they want to be able to call him.

Here is what I’ve got listed so far. I’m not listing any all star game info because it doesn’t have the meaning that it used to.

*****

30 Visits

OG Vega Ioane – Penn State
OT Markell Bell – Miami
OT Travis Burke – Memphis
OT Max Iheanachor – Arizona State
TE Nate Boerkircher – Texas A&M
WR Omar Cooper – Indiana
WR Chris Bell – Louisville

ED Dani Dennis-Sutton – Penn State
ED Romello Height – Texas A&M
S Jalen Kilgore – South Carolina

*****

PRO DAYS

*** Clemson – DL coach Clint Hurtt was there
DL Damonte Capeheart
DL Peter Woods
ED TJ Parker
ED Cade Denhoff

*** Miami – DL coach Clint Hurtt was there
ED Rueben Bain
ED Ahkeem Mesidoor
DL David Blay

RB Deamonte Trayanum – Toledo – met with him at Pro Day

LB Scooby Williams – Texas A&M – met with him at his Pro Day

DT Jayden Loving – Wake Forest – met with him at his Pro Day

DT Josiah Green – Duke – met with him at his Pro Day

*****

SPECIAL INTEREST

LB Ernest Hausmann – Michigan – had dinner with him

TE Dae’Quan Wright – Ole Miss – virtual meeting

*****

What can we tell from the info above? The Eagles are focused on drafting an OT. I wrote about some of the prospects recently. Some people wondered about the wisdom of taking an OL early this year. Anyone who watched last year’s OL play should fully support adding line help. That was a bit of a worst case scenario with Landon Dickerson, Cam Jurgens and Lane Johnson all missing time or massively struggling due to injuries. All five starters are back this year and seem to be trending in the right direction health wise.

The reason you go for OL help in the draft is that you can’t find good OL help at the pro level without paying megabucks. You have to go to the draft to find players to bring in and develop. There is a shortage of good O-linemen in the NFL. And you can’t draft one player and assume the situation is fixed. You need to add multiple players and have them battle it out. First round pick Andre Dillard didn’t pan out for the Eagles, but seventh round pick Jordan Mailata did. Expect the Eagles to take at least two OL in this class.

The Eagles are checking out first round guys, but also looking at others in case they can’t land one they want at pick 23.

Howie wants to add a top talent behind Lane Johnson. He’s trying to make sure the Eagles have as many options as possible. It is ideal to add the player this year so he can be ready to take over for Lane when he finally does retire.

The Eagles are also focused on adding an edge rusher. Clint Hurtt went to those Pro Days to check out Bain, Mesidoor and Parker. The Eagles would have to trade up for Bain. Mesidoor could make it to 23. Parker should be there. Bringing in DDS and Height also tells us something. DDS had 8.5 sacks each of the past two seasons. Height had 10 sacks last season. It sure feels like there is an emphasis on production. There are some prospects who are disruptive, but don’t make as many plays (Keldrick Faulk). DDS and Howell made plays.

I was glad to see WR Chris Bell visited Philly. He had a great season, but tore his ACL in December. Bell would be good value in the second round. I’m sure the Eagles wanted to get a closer look at his knee to figure out if they’re comfortable with him.

Bell will remind you of AJ Brown in a couple of ways. Both have a similar size/build. Both can work the middle of the field because of their size and strength. Both have great RAC ability. I would love for the Eagles to get Bell in the second round.

Final note, the Eagles are looking at late round DTs with good athletic ability. They have a good DL already, but always want to find interesting depth pieces. It won’t shock me if they take a DL in the middle rounds. If that doesn’t work out, they’ll target some late gguys.

_