Since winning the Super Bowl in 2018, the Eagles have selected ten players in the NFL draft, the fewest in all of football. They went into last season as the second oldest team in football, which didn’t seem too concerning since they were widely seen as a Super Bowl contender. Eagles fans quickly realized though, this team was slow, injury prone, and, more specifically, old.
The reason for the abundance of geriatrics and a dearth of young talent is Howie Roseman. The Eagles GM loves to wheel and deal. Since returning to his GM role in 2017, Roseman has not shied away from trades. Over the past four offseason, Roseman has made about 20 trades involving draft capital. The most notable of those trades include, acquiring Golden Tate for a third round pick, Ronald Darby for a third, Michael Bennett for a fifth, Jay Ajayi for a fourth, Jordan Howard for a sixth, and, most recently, Darius Slay for a third and a fifth round pick.
Howie loves to turn third round picks or later into veteran players. Normally, that’s a great use of draft assets, but there’s a problem that all of these trades have in common. Excluding Darby and Slay, every player that Howie acquired only stuck in Philly for a year. Ajayi spent two seasons in Philly, but he’s knees gave out after year one, so I can’t count him.
One of the biggest values of draft picks is that they turn into cost controllable players. Trying to fill major holes with veterans acquired via draft capital isn’t a bad move, but it only works if the player sticks around. The Eagles have been allocating draft and financial capital to their players rather than using the two separately to better maximize your assets. They’re basically paying a dollar for a 50 cent cost and aren’t getting any change back.
It hasn’t just been trades for veteran players that’ve cost the Eagles. Roseman has not done a great job when moving around in the draft either. The Eagles traded a first, fourth, and sixth round pick in order to move up in the draft to select Andre Dillard. The Eagles walked away from that draft class with just four players (Clayton Thorson doesn’t count because I’m still not sure if they’re an actual person). That’s almost half of their draft capital invested into one player and there are already rumors that they Eagles may try to trade him. Trading two picks to acquire a backup tight end in Dallas Goedert also seems bit costly in hindsight.
Compounding matters is Roseman’s ability to draft. Not only is he giving picks away, he’s not making good on the one’s he actually uses. Looking at his draft history since being reinstated is not pretty. There’s Carson Wentz and then there’s a lot of other guys. Of the 26 players Roseman’s drafted since 2016, only about eight players have proven to be starter quality, nine if you count Nate Gerry, which feels like a stretch.That adds up to about two starters a draft, which isn’t bad, but it’s not enough when the rest of your draft picks don’t contribute and the players you acquire through trades leave.
I like Howie. I think he is a good, smart GM. With that said, he needs to hit a home run with this draft class. It could be difficult with only eight picks at his disposal and just two in the top-100. Otherwise, this may be his last draft in Philly.
Snowballs & Batteries 