The NFL world is in a bit of a lull after the annual meetings in Arizona last week. There are still a couple of weeks before the draft buzz really gets crazy, so the Eagles website is busy getting national media members to share their general thoughts on where the Eagles are heading.
And since we're talking about the official Eagles website, the future looks bright.
Up first, in a conversation with Dave Spadaro, NFL.com insider Ian Rapoport thinks the Birds are heading in the right direction after finding Carson Wentz to build around.
"They seem to be going in the right direction," Rapoport said. "It's so interesting. When you find a franchise quarterback, which obviously everyone wants to do, it's almost like the weight of the world has been lifted off your shoulders. The Eagles, they're good. I don't know how good Carson Wentz is going to become and he probably doesn't. It's obviously up to him and there are circumstances that are certainly up in the air, but you know you've got him. It's almost like ‘Alright, that's good. Now we can focus on everything else', where the teams that don't have one spend every living, waking moment trying to maneuver to figure out how to get one, so that's a big one to check off the list."
Rapoport also sees the upcoming draft in Philly being a deep one for what the Eagles need.
"Certainly you'd like to improve the pass rush, and I think Chris Long helps," he said. "It's going to be interesting to see what he has left. Locker room guy, he's great, tough dude, perfect veteran to sign. We won't see what the product on the field is until he shows up for Training Camp, just like any of these (older players). They'd like to improve the back end (of the defense) a little bit. This is a really good draft for what the Eagles need."
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You can read more on Rapoport's thoughts on where the Birds are headed here.
Spadaro also caught up with ESPN's John Clayton while out in Arizona. Clayton echoed Rapoport's sentiment that having Carson cemented at the QB position makes every other decision come a bit easier.
"It's a quarterback-driven league," Clayton told Spadaro. "If you don't have the quarterback, you're drafting or hoping to be in the right position to luckily get a quarterback. Like this year if you drafted high, you weren't getting a top quarterback so you want to be in position. Last year, the Eagles weren't in a position to get that, but they traded up to get it and made a bold move."
Nobody knows what Wentz' ceiling is, but Clayton compared him to another QB who may or may not have reached "elite" status but has brought home a Super Bowl: Delaware's own Joe Flacco.
"You put (Flacco in a big game), he can do some good things," he said. "I see Carson Wentz evolving in a similar way. You can see the way his style is, and it's somewhere between Ben Roethlisberger and Joe Flacco, and that was there from the very beginning when the scouting reports were there."
Clayton likes where the Eagles are headed relative to their NFC East rivals.
"One of the things you can see the metrics on is if you have a lot of close games that you lose, and that was kind of the Eagles last year," Clayton said. "If you get more talent and do some things, you can usually turn that around. So I see an upsurge right now for the Eagles … I think the NFC East is right now the fastest-rising division and is once again becoming one of the best after being one of the worst."
Check out Clayton's full thoughts here.
