Bucky Brooks mocks two B+ first round picks to the Philadelphia Eagles

It’s (almost) here; it’s (almost) finally here: The 2022 NFL Draft is mere days away.

After months of player evaluations, rumors, and mock drafts – oh so many mock drafts – the first round is mere hours away, and Rounds 2-7 will follow closely thereafter. When that moment arrives, we will finally find out who the next crop of Eagles players will be, if Howie Roseman secured a steal, or if fans will be scratching their heads for years to come about the latest questionable selection.

But until then, it’s still mock draft season, and the NFL will be abuzz with the scores of different ways the first round could come into focus.

Will the Jacksonville Jaguars select Aidan Hutchinson? Or how about Ickey Ekwonu? And what about quarterbacks; how many quarterbacks will go in the first round? Two? Three? Four?

While only time will tell, Bucky Brooks over at NFL.com released his final mock in the leadup to the 2022 NFL Draft and handed the Philadelphia Eagles not one but two quality playmakers who could be fixtures of the team for years to come. Are they the ideal picks? Eh, maybe not, but if things break the way Brooks predicts, it would certainly go down as a B+ class, to be sure.

Wide receiver and defensive tackle are popular picks for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Alright, so without further ado, who did Bucky Brooks select for the Philadelphia Eagles in his fourth and final mock draft? Did he land Philly a shiny new linebacker like Devin Lloyd? A new cornerback like Andrew Booth? An heir apparent to Jason Kelce?

How about Chris Olave out of Ohio State at 15 and Devonte Wyatt at 18?

Now, if you’ve been keeping up with the Eagles so far this offseason, those names shouldn’t be particularly surprising. Howie Roseman has reportedly been pining over Olave for well over a month now, and Wyatt, the other defensive tackle out of Georgia, is an incredible athlete in his own right who might actually be a better fit in the Eagles’ scheme than Jordan Davis despite reportedly being off of some draft boards due to off-field concerns.

First, Olave; while he isn’t the biggest, fastest, or strongest performer in this year’s class, he’s a very comparable prospect to DeVonta Smith, a player the Eagles traded up to draft, coming out of the NCAA level. He’s similarly fast, a similarly effective route runner, and the kind of player who can get himself open before the ball is even thrown his way. A true X receiver he is not, but the dynamic quartet of Smith, Olave, Quez Watkins, and Zach Pascal would be a marked improvement over their 2021 offensive iteration.

And as for Wyatt? Well, he’s a 6-foot-3, 304-pound three-down defensive tackle who ran a 4.77 40 at the 2022 NFL Draft combine and had four sacks in his final season at Georgia; need I go on? With both Fletcher Cox and Javon Hargrave set to hit free agency in 2023, securing Wyatt as a rotational defensive tackle who could step into a bigger role next season would be a wonderful utilization of a first-round pick that falls at the tail end of the teens.

Now granted, are either of these selections, like, home runs? No. One could argue that the Eagles’ biggest need heading into the 2022 NFL Draft is at perimeter cornerback, and selecting these two over similarly talented defensive backs would be a poor alocation of resources. Furthermore, neither player is the “best” player at their respective positions in the draft, which could lead to unfair comparisons to similar performers selected by other teams. Still, in Brooks’ draft, Jordan Davis, Garrett Wilson, London Drake, and Jameson Williams were already off the board, as was Derek Stingly Jr., Sauce Gardner, and current rumored trade-up target, Kayvon Thibodeaux, so of the players available at each pick, it’s hard to quibble too much with the players selected, unless, of course, you’re a big fan of Trent McDuffie or Treylon Burks, who were selected immediately after each pick.

Factor in the volume of solid cornerbacks available on Day 2 – read about that here – and this would be a safe, solid, though not quite spectacular way to close out the first round.

Will the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft break this way for the Philadelphia Eagles? Probably not. The chances of predicting a perfect first round are incredibly slim, and some team always shocks the greater NFL world with a player so seldom predicted to go in the first round that the truck doesn’t even have college highlights ready to play, as Marcus Smith will tell you. Still, if things do break the way Bucky Brooks predicted, I would imagine most Philly fans would be fairly content with how the first round shook out, especially if the team’s next three picks are at cornerback, safety, and linebacker, in that order.