Philadelphia Eagles: Secondary-focused Day 2 Mock Draft

The Philadelphia Eagles did not draft best player available in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft, not really anyway. They traded up to procure Jordan Davis 13th overall, who was probably the consensus second-best player on the board at the time behind Kyle Hamilton, and traded pick 18 for A.J. Brown despite having quality performers like Treylon Burks, Trent McDuffie, Tyler Linderbaum, and Jermaine Johnson II still on the board.

Would the Eagles revert to BPA in the second round, where a player like USC’s Drake Jackson –  who was available in all three of the PFF Mock Drafts I ran – could still be available, or should they instead look at their board and select the best player available at the team’s biggest need, perimeter cornerback?

Personally, the chances of a cornerback like Jalyn Armour-Davis falling to the Eagles at 83 is just too anxiety-inducing, so cornerback it is, even if there isn’t an ideal option who fits Jonathan Gannon’s schematic preferences.

Measuring in at 5-foot-11, 191 pounds, Roger McCreary is a weird prospect. He’s a fantastic cover cornerback who can play plus press-man coverage and make smart decisions in zone, but his wingspan, which ranks in the zeroth percentile according to Mockdraftable, and his 4.5 40 time will remove him from some team’s boards entirely or worse, stamp him with the scarlet letter of “slot only.”

Still, for a team like the Eagles who need an immediate performer who can start right away, McCreary isn’t that much smaller than Zech McPhearson and is a much more pro-ready prospect than the former fourth-round pick who got first run at the CB2 spot before signing Steven Nelson later in the summer. While he would look a bit goofy at times pressing 6-foot-5 wide receivers at the line of scrimmage if Gannon opts against having Darius Slay travel situationally, McCreary is a solid, pro-ready cornerback who could more than live up to the price of a second-round pick.