Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

Choices to Make

Posted April 9th, 2025 | 3 Comments »

Coaches and general managers want options. Building a roster and creating a team is a fluid situation. Howie Roseman signed Zack Baun last year. Vic Fangio and LB coach Bobby King helped Baun become a star. Howie signed Mekhi Becton. Nick Sirianni suggested they try him at RG. Jeff Stoutland was able to coach Becton into becoming a good starting guard.

Baun was only one option at LB. The Eagles also signed Devin White and Oren Burks. They drafted Jeremiah Trotter Jr.

Becton was only one option at RG. Tyler Steen was penciled in for the job. Tyler Hennessy was signed to compete for the spot. The Eagles also drafted Trevor Keegan.

Options.

The Eagles are going to have choices to make over the next few months. Let’s think about the safety position. Right now Sydney Brown is the front runner to start in place of CJGJ. The Eagles can sign a veteran if they want one. Justin Simmons is still n the market and has interest in the Eagles.

Simmons sure sounds like a player who desperately wants to come to Philly. He’d be joining a great team and playing for coaches he knows. You can understand his thinking. Simmons is a 30-30 guy. He’s 31 years old and has 32 career INTs. You can see where he would make sense for a team that has Super Bowl expectations.

The Eagles might prefer to add someone in the draft. We just found out that Penn State safety Jaylen Reed had a visit with the Eagles. Reed is a talented playmaker. He started 29 games for the Nittany Lions, finishing with 12.5 TFLs and 5 INTs.

It will be interesting to see what the Eagles do at safety.

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DT is another position where the Eagles have options. Jordan Davis and Moro Ojomo are the returning players who will fight to eat up the snaps available after Milton Williams departure. Davis is the run stuffer. Ojomo is the pass rusher.

The Eagles could target a DT early in the draft if they feel like they need an impact player at the position. Or they could focus on Davis and Ojomo and then add a Day 3 pick to give depth at the position. The Eagles haven’t had any visits with first round DTs. We did learn they had a visit with TJ Sanders, who will most likely be a second round pick.

Sanders is probably my favorite DT in the draft. I think he would be an excellent fit on the Eagles. I love his ability to play different spots and be disruptive in multiple ways. I don’t know if he would make it to pick 64. The Eagles could trade back from 32 or up from 64 if they really like him.

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TE is another spot where the Eagles have some things to figure out. Dallas Goedert is still on the roster. They would love to keep him, but only if it makes financial sense. We may not get a formal decision on DG until after June 1st.

The Eagles have Grant Calcaterra, Harrison Bryant and Kylen Granson on the roster now. That is a good trio of TEs, sort of. All three are good backups. I’m not sure any of them is a true #1 TE. Do the Eagles give Calcaterra a chance to start? Bryant is a solid blocker and receiver. They could try him as a starter. Both of those moves would be projections.

This is a deep, talented TE class in the upcoming draft. The team could target someone early. Mason Taylor could be a Top 40 pick. I guess the Eagles could try to trade up if Tyler Warren or Colston Loveland slips into the 20’s. The Eagles could add someone in the middle rounds. We’ll just have to see how they decide to address the position.

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The point of all this is that the Eagles don’t have to target a certain position. They have options. They can focus on individual players and not just positions. We know the Eagles do prioritize certain positions.

Howie knows he’s going to have to take some chances. That could be Ojomo or Brown or Calcaterra. The Eagles can’t address every spot with a high pick or a veteran addition.

The front office did a great job of finding the right combination of players last year. They will have some tough decisions to make with several key holes to fill, but there is good news. The Eagles have a great coaching staff and they still have good resources to use to improve the roster.

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Eagles Draft Talk

Posted April 6th, 2025 | 3 Comments »

There are a lot of us keeping track of the pre-draft visits involving the Eagles. As I documented in the previous post, several of the draft picks from the previous couple of years did come to Philly for a visit. It is worth paying attention to these.

I also tried to see if there were patterns with the kind of players being brought to Philly. In doing some more thinking, a couple of other trends stood out to me. First, most of the top prospects we know about would be at play for pick 32 or in the early second round. Howie Roseman loves to trade up when he identifies good players who might slide a bit or get close enough to be reachable.

We only know 17 of the 30 visitors at this point so other guys could have come to Philly. It is just interesting that none of these players are prospects you would have to move up for, at least more than a pick or two. With the amount of picks Howie has over the next two years, I thought this might be a year for him to be aggressive. We’ll see.

The first round is awkward. There aren’t many elite prospects. This is a year where being at 32 isn’t that bad of a spot. The Eagles can stay put. They also could trade back a bit and have a chance for a decent return.

The other thing that occurred to me is that the Eagles haven’t brought any TE prospects in for a visit. They did meet with some at the Senior Bowl and Combine, but that’s not the same thing. It is less indicative of serious interest. Every Senior Bowl player meets with every team. You go to the second floor of the players hotel in Mobile and there is a secure area where players meet teams. This is organized and run on a very specific schedule.

Maybe the Eagles are trying to guard their interest in TEs. Maybe this is an anomaly and I’m overthinking it. We’ll see.

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One player the Eagles have been linked to a lot is DT Walter Nolen. He is 6-4, 296 and a powerful, explosive defender. In terms of talent and potential, I’d love this pick.

Who wouldn’t want that guy?

There are some concerns with Nolen. One is that he was enrolled at four high schools and went to two colleges. That’s a lot of movement in seven years. Scouts have done a lot of digging to figure out if this is odd circumstances or a player who wore out his welcome.

Nolen could go anywhere from 15 to 45, give or take. Teams in the 1o to 20 range are bringing him in for visits. Daniel Jeremiah had Nolen at #28 on his recent Top 50 list. Bruce Feldman recently did a mock draft after talking to coaches and scouts. He didn’t have Nolen in his first round. It will be interesting to see where he goes.

Nolen does have one big fan in Philly.

Fran raved about Nolen while we were in Mobile. He is a believer.

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Michigan edge rusher Josaiah Stewart might be my favorite prospect in the whole class. He reminds me a lot of Nolan Smith. Stewart is only 6-1, 249, but he plays bigger than that. And he can fly off the edge.

The Eagles would target him at the end of the second round, if they are interested.

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We got some good news on Sunday.

Cam Ward is the top QB in the draft and will go first overall.

Shedeur Sanders will go in the first round, probably the Top 10. Jaxson Dart could be in play in the second half of the first round. Could Milroe sneak into the first?

I think that is nuts, but desperate teams do desperate things. Milroe has major talent, but is also a major project. His footwork is a total mess. It was painful to watch him at times down in Mobile. If a team has time to develop him, that’s fine. I just don’t think Milroe is worth a high pick.

The Eagles want as many QBs as possible to go in the first round. That pushes down a positional player. Quinyon Mitchell wouldn’t have fallen to 22 last year if not for all the QBs that went early.

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