PHILADELPHIA -- A wrap-up of the Philadelphia Eagles’ draft:
Best move: Moving up five spots in the second round to get defensive back Eric Rowe was big. The Eagles had to get help for their secondary in this draft. They had added cornerbacks Byron Maxwell and Walter Thurmond in free agency, but were unable to land New England safety Devin McCourty. With the departure of safety Nate Allen and cornerbacks Cary Williams and Bradley Fletcher, the Eagles needed more help. By going with wide receiver Nelson Agholor in the first round, Chip Kelly left himself little margin for error. He knew it, too, giving up two fifth-round picks to move up to pick No. 47 overall for Rowe.
Riskiest move: By definition, making a first-round draft pick has an element of risk to it. While USC wide receiver Agholor certainly appears to be a solid choice, the fact is this was a draft class loaded with talent at wide receiver. Kelly could have gone with Central Florida’s Breshad Perriman or Ohio State’s Devin Smith. He could have selected a defensive back -- Connecticut’s Byron Jones, who went to Dallas -- and gone for a receiver in the second round. But Kelly really liked Agholor and said he was worried about someone taking him as the first round developed. He needs to hit a home run with this pick, and Agholor is his guy.
Most surprising move: No question, the third-round selection of Texas inside linebacker Jordan Hicks was the big surprise in this draft. The Eagles already had a logjam at that position, with Kiko Alonso coming from Buffalo to join DeMeco Ryans and Mychal Kendricks. But Kelly said Hicks was far and away the best player available on the Eagles’ draft board, and that they had spent more time with him than any other player during the pre-draft process. It wasn’t a random move. Hicks could be the leader of the Eagles’ defense for years, after a year or two as Ryans’ understudy.
File it away: The Eagles had only six picks in this draft, and used five of them on defensive players after adding Alonso, Maxwell and Thurmond earlier in the offseason. Kelly wants plenty of prototypical players competing to make his defense better this year. Look at the Seattle Seahawks, who built their “Legion of Boom” secondary out of third-day draft picks: Maxwell was a sixth-round pick, while Kam Chancellor and Richard Sherman came in the fifth round. Rowe, the second-round pick, will be competing with sixth-round selections JaCorey Shepherd and Randall Evans in a free-for-all at training camp.
My take: This will always be the draft that did not bring Marcus Mariota to Philadelphia. That’s just how things work in this city. Unless, of course, the defensive makeover becomes part of the story of how Chip Kelly built a Super Bowl contender here. Mariota would have been transformative, but this draft was fine on its own merits. Thumbs up
