Why exactly did the Philadelphia Eagles draft Davion Taylor?

The worst LB group in the NFL apparently has no room for Philadelphia Eagles third-round pick Davion Taylor.

The Philadelphia Eagles getting blown out by the LA Rams on Sunday was absolutely not rookie LB Davion Taylor‘s fault, but his selection in the third round of this year’s draft looks even more puzzling following the beatdown that occurred. The Eagles league-worst linebacking core was getting absolutely shredded going up against a “meh” Rams rushing attack, and the team’s shiny new third-round pick was nowhere to be found.

Similar to when he drafted QB Jalen Hurts in the second round, Howie Roseman taking a stab on a guy like Taylor so early in the draft raised some serious eyebrows. Not only is Taylor undersized for the position (6-0, 229 lbs), but he also just hadn’t really played a whole lot of football growing up? He didn’t play high school football due to religious reasons, and he didn’t see a huge role in college while playing for Colorado.

A majority of pre-draft projections had him pinned as a plus special teams player, who could maybe blossom into an outside linebacker if a team got lucky. Considering the Philadelphia Eagles gaping hole at middle linebacker, this was a really puzzling decision to make. Roseman did nothing during the offseason in terms of adding a proven MLB, and the team’s sticky cap situation moving forwards mean they likely won’t be adding anyone legit at the position anytime soon.

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Considering the fact that Taylor could be as far as two full years away from being “NFL ready”, the decision to draft him so early in the process made next to zero sense. Following the team’s abysmal performance against the run on Sunday, it looks 10x worse.

The Rams put up 191 yards on the ground against the Eagles defense (191!), averaging 4.9 yards per attempt. An astonishingly high number, especially considering the Rams starting back (Cam Akers) went down just a few snaps into the affair. Philadelphia’s linebackers looked completely overmatched, and they were exposed all game long. While it’s true the Eagles interior defensive line did little in terms of helping them out (more on that later in the week), a brunt of the blame can simply be put on guys missing tackles.

This really wasn’t too much of a surprise, as anyone with even an ounce of football knowledge could have told you that Nate Gerry and Duke Riley weren’t actually starting-caliber linebackers.

The most frustrating part about all of this, was the fact that the Philadelphia Eagles couldn’t even fathom running Taylor out there to aid Gerry and/or Riley. Is Taylor really any worse than the before mentioned LBs? Or is he simply too far away from understanding the game of football to play actual defensive downs.

Regardless of the reasoning, the fact that the Eagles third-round pick can’t even crack the worst LB room in the entire league is seriously concerning.

This is less of a criticism of Taylor, as we have yet to see him actually play, and more so a criticism of Howie Roseman and his drafting ideology. The Philadelphia Eagles have lost back-to-back games to kick off the season, and both of the general manager’s second and his third round picks have barely seen the field.

Taylor likely won’t see the field anytime soon, and we’ll be blessed with more Nate Gerry missed tackles and Duke Riley induced blown coverages. I’d like to see what the team’s third-round pick can offer on defense, but if he’s below Gerry and Riley in the depth chart, then on second thought maybe I wouldn’t.