The Philadelphia Eagles’ interest in Kenny Pickett is (probably) nothing

There’s a saying in the NFL that goes a little something like this: If you don’t have a quarterback, you don’t have a chance.

Sure, you’ll occasionally see a really well-composed team overcome an average signal-caller to pull out a Super Bowl victory or watch a backup like Nick Foles transcend his circumstances to bring home a Lombardi Trophy, but for the most part, if you go down the line, teams who win the biggest prize in American sports often have an elite option taking snaps from under center.

Is Jalen Hurts an elite quarterback? No, at this point in his career, he is not. Could he become close enough to an elite quarterback that the Philadelphia Eagles can ride with him under center for a decade-plus? The 2022 NFL season will surely go a long way in defining that possibility, but until that conversation is decided one way or another, even Kurt Warner understands that wandering eyes are just a part of the game for Philly’s front office.

With that in mind, it really shouldn’t be much of a story that the Eagles’ quarterbacks coach, Brian Johnson, took Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett out for dinner a day after his exemplary showing at his Pro Day. For all Philly knows, Pickett could end up in Washington or even New York next month, and taking a peek into his psyche could prove invaluable if he becomes a long-time division foe.

… then again, it’s not like Pickett can go out to dinner with everyone. Why would he accept a meeting with the Philadelphia Eagles when eight other teams could have conceivably made the same offer if he didn’t think there could be some fire under all of that smoke?

Could the Philadelphia Eagles have eyes for Kenny Pickett at 15, 16, or 19?

Kenny Pickett is a fun player to watch.

From his booming arm, to his variable delivery, to his absolute mastery of the fake slide that proved so deadly that the NCAA literally banned it moving forward, Pickett has a game not too dissimilar to that of Zach Wilson, Justin Fields, and yes, Patrick Mahomes, even if his ceiling is probably a good bit lower than the latter two. GMs will love that he broke Dan Marino’s passing records, that he played at a cold-weather city in college, and has the sort of suave confidence that is a borderline requirement to be considered a franchise quarterback in the waiting; just ask Justin Herbert.

For a team like the Seattle Seahawks, who suddenly find themselves with the stark reality of having Drew Lock as their starting quarterback, landing Pickett in the mid-first round would be a bet worth taking. Heck, if a team like the Indianapolis Colts could find a way to trade up into the late teens, maybe with the Philadelphia Eagles once more, the acquisition of Pickett could finally end their never-ending carousel at quarterback, once Matt Ryan finally hangs up his cleats, of course.

Could that, my friends, have just as much to do with Philly’s meeting with the Pickett as their actual interest in the player? Could Howie Roseman seriously be parlaying a $200 steak dinner into some good old-fashioned gamesmanship, especially with at least one of the team’s first-round picks very much up for grabs?

To paraphrase an Old El Paso Hard and Soft Tacos commercial, why can’t it be a little bit of both?

I mean, think about it; we don’t know how the Eagles have Pickett or any player graded on their big board. Maybe they have him, say, 11th overall, and he’s far and away the best player left on the board when the team picks at 19. Maybe they grabbed two really good players like London Drake and Jordan Davis, and the options at 19 are either double-dipping on another wide receiver, reaching for a player graded in the late 20s, or selecting a quarterback like Pickett to compete alongside Hurts moving forward? Granted, if Hurts really is the guy in 2022, using another first-round pick on a second wide receiver would probably be a better allocation of assets than drafting another quarterback, but as we saw in 2020, Roseman values backup quarterbacks more than most teams and won’t hesitate to spend a premium pick on a player he likes; just ask Carson Wentz.

Will Kenny Pickett end up taking snaps from Jason Kelce under center this fall? I highly doubt it. While the Philadelphia Eagles will all but surely walk away from the 2022 NFL Draft with another quarterback under contract, as Gardner Minshew will be a free agent at the end of the season, it probably won’t be in the first round unless things go in a very different direction. But could this meeting, however seemingly insignificant, throw some doubt into the minds of other general managers and maybe influence another team’s draft strategy? Yes, yes, it could. In a game of margins, why not take a promising young quarterback out for dinner and see what happens?