Philadelphia Eagles’ Seven Round Mock Draft | 1.0
Round 1: Dalvin Cook, RB, Florida State
“But Ben, you had running back as your third biggest need, why are you drafting–”
I know.
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When teams have a ‘best player available’ (BPA) draft mentality, they formulate a Big Board–a hierarchical list of all of the prospects–and whatever prospect is at the top of their list when their pick arrives, they grab that prospect. Other teams draft for areas of need, using more horizontally oriented boards, and grabbing the best player available at their position of need.
No team who claims to perfectly adhere to the BPA mentality actually does. Sometimes, they skip a few slots or break a tie using an area of need.
By the same token, a team drafting for an area of need might be lured to by the availability of an elite prospect who, sliding for whatever reason, addresses a lesser area of need, or no area of need at all. Make sense?
Enter Dalvin Cook.
Forget the Fournette hype–Cook is the best running back in this class, bar none. Check out some plays:
All against Clemson. Which, you may know, has kinda an okay defense.
Cook’s greatest strengths are his patience and his burst–I’m not saying he’s Pittsburgh RB Le’Veon Bell, but watch an average Bell run and you’ll see how long he waits, how he sets up his blockers, and then how quickly he explodes through the seam they create. Cook runs in a similar fashion, picking and choosing his hole carefully, then firing through seams with elite acceleration. He rarely panics in the backfield or tries to over-create, as rookies often do, but runs smart, taking what he can get at times and bouncing to the corner at others.
Given his ability as a receiving threat, Cook is a true three-down back that fits perfectly into the Eagles’ running scheme behind their athletic offensive line. His presence would take great stress off of Wentz’s shoulders and often keep the Eagles from those 3rd-and-long situations that plagued them all year–for this very reason, I think RB is an underrated need for Philly (read: Zeke helped Dak)
A game-changing prospect, if Cook drops to 14, the Eagles will run the card to the podium.