The Eagles are in a pretty good spot heading into this year's draft. No, picking at No. 32 isn't the most exciting thing, but that's what happens when you go out and win the Super Bowl.
The nice thing for the Birds is that they don't have any super pressing needs. They have positions were they could add a player, but there's nothing glaring. They can simply pick the best player on the board if they choose.
Or maybe they'll pick the best player on the offensive side of the ball.
"I would expect the focus to be early on on the offensive side of the ball," NFL Network analyst and former Eagles scout Daniel Jeremiah said on a joint national conference call with Bucky Brooks on Wednesday.
The Eagles went defense with their first-round pick last year when they took Derek Barnett at No. 14, but have leaned offense in the first round in five of the last nine drafts, including 2016 when they took Carson Wentz and 2015 when they took Nelson Agholor.
Jeremiah has a few different positions in mind.
"I know the signing of Richard Rodgers is a nice move there to kind of be able to complement to Ertz," he said. "You're hoping he goes back to the form he showed a couple of years ago. I still think tight end is a legitimate option there.
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"Running back, having another running back, you don't know Jay Ajayi, in terms of long term, what you have there. And they showed last year having a bunch of guys you could roll through there was valuable. So you get a guy - a Sony Michel, a Derrius Guice or somebody like that.
"You look at (tight ends) Dallas Goedert, Hayden Hurst, those make sense at those two positions. And the challenge is, look, I think you would love to get a tackle, have another tackle, even though [Halapoulivaati Vaitai] played great last year with Peters out, with Peters' age, I think you'd like to add another backup swing tackle with some upside there. I just don't think there's going to be one with any value where they're picking.
"Those would be the areas I think they would focus. Receiver would be another one. I think the offensive side of the ball makes sense. And truthfully I believe they're out of day two, right? They don't have a 2 or a 3. It might make sense with the depth at those positions that we're just talking about for them to get out of the first round, trade back a little bit, see if they can't get some extra picks to look at those needs."
Jeremiah is right. The Eagles pick at No. 32 and then they don't have another pick (for now) until the 30th selection of the fourth round. They have picks No. 130 (from the Sam Bradford trade) and No. 132 (their own). They then have a fifth-, sixth- and seventh-round pick.
Brooks thinks the idea of taking an offensive player makes sense, but he was a little more specific. He said the Eagles have the luxury of taking the best player on the board, but …
"But if you look at their history, they like to get big players -- offensive, defensive linemen, guys that can really solidify the foundation of that house," Brooks said. "And so Daniel talked about offensive tackle. I believe that there's an offensive tackle that unexpectedly falls to them at the bottom of the first round, I think they would jump on that.
"I think being able to have some forethought when it comes to what do you do with Jason Peters as he gets older, do you have a replacement in the hopper, someone you can develop on the side that you can develop without the pressure putting him on the field? That's the best way for teams to stay at the top level. I would expect the Philadelphia Eagles, if it works, find an offensive lineman that helps them."
In the last couple years, Howie Roseman has talked about the importance of building the team around strong offensive and defensive lines, but didn't take any offensive linemen in what was considered a historically weak class in 2017. In 2016, the Eagles drafted Isaac Seumalo in the third round and Vaitai in the fifth.
Those are the only two offensive linemen the Eagles have drafted in the last four drafts combined. They took Lane Johnson way back in 2013. So maybe they're due.
