Eagles Draft Stories

We have come to the dead period in the offseason. I will be writing some retrospective pieces and some oddball stuff that hopefully will be entertaining. For today I’ve got some interesting draft nuggets from over the years.

Back in 2001 my favorite prospect was a DE from Ole Miss. His name was Derrick Burgess. I liked his overall game, but there was a 2-play sequence that really sold me on him. Ole Miss and Mississippi State are bitter rivals. They face each other late in the season in a game called the Egg Bowl and it has had some wild stuff happen over the years. The teams genuinely do not like each other and it shows.

The TE for MSU had a good block on Burgess and let him know about it. Burgess didn’t respond. On the next play he ran over the TE and disrupted the play. Anyone can talk. I preferred him getting revenge in a better way. I was thrilled when the Eagles drafted him. Burgess was talented, but also really intense. I mean really intense.

The veteran DL had a tradition of having rookies bring chicken when the team had a train ride down to DC. Burgess showed up without any chicken and caught some grief for it. He responded to the veteran to “get your own f’in chicken”. He might have been a rookie, but wasn’t going to put up with BS from anybody.

Sadly, injuries limited him to 30 games as an Eagle. His high moment cmae in the 2004 NFC title game when he sacked Michael Vick twice and helped the Eagles get to the Super Bowl, where he had another sack. Burgess went to Oakland as a free agent after that and made a couple of Pro Bowls while racking up 38.5 sacks.

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Back in 1986 the Eagles took LB Alonzo Johnson in the second round and DE Dan McMillen in the fifth round. You probably don’t remember them. They combined to play three very forgettable seasons for the Eagles. It is a good thing that Buddy Ryan double-dipped by going for another LB and DE later in the draft. Seth Joyner was an eighth round pick and Clyde Simmons went in the ninth round. Both became All-Pros and had borderline Hall of Fame careers. You never know which player is going to work out and which one isn’t. A good modern example would be 2011 when Danny Watkins became a first round bust and Jason Kelce was taken in the sixth round and is on his way to Canton.

In 1990 Buddy took WR Mike Bellamy in the second round. I remember watching him at Illinois. He was a terrific college player, but only lasted one season in the NFL. Third rounder Fred Barnett and fifth rounder Calvin Williams combined to be a great receiving tandem through 1995.

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Ray Rhodes was a great motivator and good coach. His personnel moves were very mixed, especially on defense. He had this habit of projecting players to unrealistic levels. In 1995 he traded up for Mike Mamula, hoping he would be a Charles Haley type of pass rusher for the Eagles. Mamula was better than he’s given credit for, but never came close to being Haley, who was dominant. Mamula started 64 games for the Eagles and had 31.5 sacks and 9 FF. Injuries ended his career early. Here is the breakout game for him from his rookie year.

In 1997 Rhodes fell in love with another DE. This one wasn’t a Combine star, but rather a big guy who Ray felt could be the next Too Tall Jones kind of player. I’m talking about Jon Harris who was 6-7, 280. He was a so-so athlete. Rhodes fell in love with his size and length. B-u-s-t. Harris played for the Eagles for two years and then was out of the league. He started 8 games and had 2 sacks and 59 tackles. Most people thought Harris was a third round player. Rhodes took him 25th overall. DE Trevor Pryce went 28th overall. He played 14 years and finished with 91 sacks. And he was 6-5, 290, hardly a Muchkin. Ugh.

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People can talk about the Eagles struggling to find LBs over the years. I actually noticed an interesting trend. If they draft a MLB, do it in the third round and there is a good chance it will work out.

1998 – Jeremiah Trotter
2007 – Stewart Bradley
2015 – Jordan Hicks
2022 – Nakobe Dean

Kinda crazy. Bradley was on his way to being a star when he tore up his knee in the summer of 2009. He was great in 2008.

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The Eagles had a major hole at LT for years. I remember reading Dr. Z’s draft preview in SI in 1994 and he had the team taking Georgia star OT Bernard Williams. I was thrilled at the idea of finally solving LT. The Eagles took him 14th overall and he started all 16 games as a rookie. Life seemed good. There was a small problem, though. Williams had two hobbies. He loved playing basketball and…getting high. Williams failed multiple drug tests over the next couple of years. He never played in the NFL again. What a waste of talent.

Bruce Walker makes Bernard Williams look like a HOFer. Walker was a big DT from UCLA, going 6-3, 326. The Eagles spent a second round pick on him, also in the 1994 draft. Walker was talented, but he was suspended for his senior season due to a criminal issue. Can you imagine taking that guy in the second round? Heck, he was probably off a lot of draft boards completely. He never played a game for the Eagles. They released him in August after drafting him in April. Just insane.

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I feel pretty confident that the 1992 draft is the best name draft in Eagles history. They took punter Pumpy Tudors in the 11th round and LB Ephesians Bartley in the 9th round.

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