Philadelphia Eagles Draft: Post-Combine Seven Round Mock
Howard Wilson, CB, Houston
This CB class has some incredible talent, folks. First-round conversation has circled Gareon Conley, Marshon Lattimore, Quincy Wilson, Teez Tabor, and Sidney Jones for months. After their showing in Indy, players like Adoree’ Jackson, Fabian Moreau, Kevin King, and Cordrea Tankersley have garnered some Round 1 hype has well. Ahkello Witherspoon, Rasul Douglas, Tre’Davious White, Chidobe Awuzie, Damontae Kazee–I could keep going with other Day 2 and Day 3 prospects.
One player I expected to impress coming in? Howard Wilson, the redshirt sophomore out of Houston. He looks the NFL athlete on tape and in Lucas Oil Stadium, moving through the positional drills with top-shelf smoothness and twitch.
But some of the numbers didn’t add up.
A 4.57 40 won’t get the job done on the edge. 33.5″ vertical and 119″ broad? Good, not great. 6.68 3-cone is quite nice. Now, a 3.94 short shuttle? That’s elite. Only Kevin King also posted below 4.00 flat.
If Wilson posts a better 40 than 4.57 at Houston’s pro day, it’s highly unlikely he drops into Round 4. But if he can’t drop down to at least 4.50, teams might go looking for other options.
On tape, Wilson’s a raw talent with the traits you’d like to mold. He’s quick-twitch, rangy, and long (6’1, 31 3/8″). He likes to hit and has a nose for the ball (averaged an interception every
fifteen!targets in CFB). He can press and play zone. Everything is there.
An ACL sidelined him for most of 2015, and it’s worthy of monitoring, but I heard nothing about it at the Combine, so that bodes well. He’ll need a few years to develop, but so will most of the Philadelphia Eagles’ roster. His ceiling is CB1. I’ll take that in Round 4.