Should the Eagles Consider Moving up in Draft?
As it stands right now the Eagles hold the 21st overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft this spring. In a recently published piece, the PHLEaglesNation crew put out its first mock draft of the year.
In it, the Eagles were able to grab Henry Ruggs III with their first-round selection.
If Ruggs III is on the board still when the Eagles pick comes around, there is little to no question that they should select him. However, finding Ruggs III on the draft board in the latter half of the first round seems hard to envision. The 2020 receiver class looks to be loaded, with the possibility of Ruggs’ college teammate at Alabama, Jerry Jeudy, and Oklahoma stud, CeeDee Lamb, getting selected in the first ten picks. From the eleventh pick on, other teams in need of talent on the outside include the Jets, Colts, Broncos, Raiders (twice), and Jaguars. It is hard to see any of those teams not take a chance on Ruggs III.
If the team is truly interested in drafting a big playmaker like Ruggs III, then trading up in the draft would make a lot of sense. The Eagles would ideally need to get up into the fourteen to sixteen range of the draft. At a minimum, the team would leapfrog over Jacksonville and Las Vegas and have a shot at even getting ahead of Denver, three teams in desperate need of receivers. However, this is easier said than done.
Moving up that high would require exchanging first-round selections as well as another one, two, or even three early to mid-round picks in 2020 and 2021. Including a player in a deal would also be an option for the Eagles.
Unless the team has its heart set on Ruggs III and is willing to use bigger assets to get him, he might be hard to come by.
Moving up into the seventeen to nineteen range might be more beneficial to the team in terms of both getting a better opportunity at the better talent and being able to save future assets.
Moving up two to four spots would give the team a shot at other positions of need such as cornerback and safety. Cornerback Kristian Fulton and safety Xavier Mckinney are both guys that could be plugged in right away on the back half of the Eagles defense. They would have more of a shot wearing midnight green if the Eagles were to draft at seventeen, eighteen, or nineteen, rather than at twenty-one.
The compensation the Eagles would give in return would also be less of a burden on the team. This can be seen in the details of last year’s draft-night trade with the Ravens. The Eagles were able to move up three spots in the first round to select Andre Dillard. Along with swapping first-round selections, the Eagles only forfeited over a fourth and sixth-round pick. Looking at how the team wants to get younger, a similar deal to this one would be a great way to get more young talent on the roster without having to give up picks in the second and third rounds. Rounds where true hidden gems can be found.
Going into the draft the Eagles have a lot to unpack. They could stay at twenty-one and hope for the best or they could be aggressive and look to move up and get a player who may have a greater impact right away.
The 2020 draft is huge for the Eagles and will truly shape the future of the team.
Featured Image: Andy Lyons/Getty Images
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Categorized:Eagles