Rumor: The Philadelphia Eagles are keying in on Kyle Hamilton

Uh oh, we have a new Philadelphia Eagles rumor that affects both free agency and the draft; a rumor semi-vindicated by one of the players involved.

On a particularly good Friday afternoon in April, multi-hyphenate Eagles personality Victor Williams tweeted out that, according to some folks he walked to across the league, Kyle Hamilton‘s falling draft stock is a big reason why talks with Tyrann Mathieu have stalled. Because the pride of LSU will likely command a deal at least in the same ballpark – or should I say football stadium – as Stephon Gilmore’s new two-year, $23 million deal with the Indianapolis Colts, Howie Roseman and company may prefer to address the safety position via the draft, where players are under much more team-friendly contracts.

If that was that, it would still be worth discussing, as every little bit of info that leaks out this time of year is valuable either as a legitimate nugget of front office insight or as an intentional smokescreen meant to hide the team’s true intentions, but then the top free agent left on the open market weighed in on the ordeal, and suddenly, things got really interesting.

Wow… a lot to unpack here.

So what could Tyrann Mathieu mean by “Lol yeah ok?” Is he laughing at that being the reason why he isn’t signing with the Birds? Or could he be laughing at the suggestion that talks between his team and the Philadelphia Eagles have stalled and a tweet announcing his signing is being readied as we speak? Personally, I think the most interesting part of this story is the initial tweet, as Howie Roseman keying in on Kyle Hamilton as a back-seven foundational player would be an incredibly intriguing development indeed.

Kyle Hamilton would be a transformative player for the Philadelphia Eagles’ D.

Two months ago, the idea of the Philadelphia Eagles being in play to draft Kyle Hamilton would have been crazy. He was largely considered one of, if not the best overall player in the 2022 NFL Draft after closing out his time in South Bend with a fantastic 2021 campaign with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and looked destined to follow in the footsteps of Isaiah Simmons, Kyle Dugger, and Jeremy Chinn.

Are you a team looking for a box safety who can hit, cover, and make plays in the run game? Hamilton was the guy in the 2022 class. How about a playmaker at strong safety in a two-high shell, the look the Philadelphia Eagles want to use as their base defense? Hamilton can do that, too, as he has the range, instincts, and smarts to make the right plays more often than not. Goodness, at 6-foot-4, 220 pounds, he is bigger than Patrick Queen coming out of LSU and could probably play linebacker full time if he bulks up a little bit.

Simply put, there isn’t a defense in the entire NFL that couldn’t use Hamilton, even if he would play a different role depending on which scheme he is drafted into.

… but then the ground started to slide out from under Hamilton.

It all started at the 2022 NFL Draft Combine, where Hamilton’s performance was largely considered underwhelming. He then backed it up with a Pro Day that was reportedly even worse – with some teams clocking his 40 time in at over 4.7 – and as the Twitter storm of draft personnel started to suggest that the media was higher on Hamilton than many of the NFL’s front offices and it became rather obvious that his stock was trending in the wrong direction.

Was Hamilton going to fall out of the top-5? The top-10? *gasp* the top-15?

Howie Roseman has the ability to guarantee that the last option doesn’t happen.

As I wrote about in-depth here, Hamilton is just too good of a player to pass up, even if he isn’t the prototypical safety for Jonathan Gannon’s system. He can play nine yards off the ball in base packages opposite Anthony Harris in a basically two-high shell, kick it down to the box opposite Kyzir White, T.J. Edwards, and Avonte Maddox in nickel, or even serve as the premier dime package defender in the NFL with just one other linebacker on the field. He projects as a solid tight end defender even if he wasn’t frequently used in man coverage at Notre Dame, has ideal switchability to cover multiple different positions in the hook curl, and should be able to do a little bit of everything at the NFL level just like he did in college.

If that player is available at 15, you take him. If, somehow, he’s still there at 18, you take him and then dance down Broad Street like Greta Gerwig in Frances Ha while David Bowie’s Modern Love plays non-diegetically over top.

The Philadelphia Eagles need to secure as many foundational players as they can find in the 2022 NFL Draft. There isn’t a position on the team that couldn’t use a young, supremely talented performer who could fill their role for the next decade-plus and secure the next Fletcher Cox, Zach Ertz, Jason Kelce, and Lane Johnson will help to make saying goodbye to those players easier. Is Kyle Hamilton one of those players? Yes, and after missing on drafting Jeremy Chin in 2020, Howie Roseman has a perfect opportunity to secure the sort of safety/linebacker hybrid player who can radically alter the composition of a defense and remain a long-term player for years to come. In my humble opinion, if he falls to 15, the decision couldn’t be any easier.