Philadelphia Eagles: 2021 draft haul defined by upside (and risk)
By David Esser
Position changes/fit.
The Philadelphia Eagles drafted two defensive players with their final two selections, both of whom are being immediately tasked with changing their position.
JaCoby Stevens, a safety at LSU, is being asked to move to linebacker, and Patrick Johnson, an EDGE at Tulane, is also being asked to move to linebacker.
Late Day 3 picks don’t really hold a ton of value in the grand scheme of things, but considering the current state of the Eagles roster (they don’t have enough players to fill out a depth chart yet!), the team would probably prefer to see all of their draft picks crack the team this season.
Last year, Roseman lost both Casey Toohill and Prince Tega-Wanogho via the waiver wire. Two Day 3 picks completely lost for nothing in return.
It’s unknown how Stevens and Johnson will respond to switching positions to outside linebacker, but there’s obviously a half decent chance that neither player will be able to do so at an NFL caliber level. Stevens has a little more experience at the role considering he operated as a in-the-box safety for LSU, whereas Johnson was best utilized as a pass rusher at Tulane. He did play some outside linebacker, but his coverage skills are expectably extremely raw.
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Ultimately speaking, pretty much every team’s “draft haul” comes with some element of risk. Drafting players isn’t as much of a science as people like to make it out to be. With that said, the Philadelphia Eagles did gamble a tad more than other teams during this weekend’s selection process. If said gambles work out, they could be looking at a handful of longterm starters. If they don’t, well then we’re right back at square one this time next year.