Eagles approached the draft with the same formula that just won them a Super Bowl
The Eagles' draft haul reflected the positions where the team needed to get younger and add depth. We've already seen what a low-cost defense playing at its peak can do.
The formula that helped the Eagles win the Super Bowl will be one that continues in the immediate future. Not that there was a much of a chance that this weekend’s draft was going to bring some sort of franchise-altering course correction for the Eagles and Howie Roseman.
The Eagles have a high-priced offense. They have a star quarterback, the highest-paid running back, and two bona fide No. 1 receivers who signed big extensions last offseason. They have an expensive offensive line, one of the best in the NFL, and four of the five spots are locked into long-term deals.
Winning football games with that backdrop is not rocket science. That offense needs to be offset by a low-cost defense that plays above its pay grade, and the Eagles won the Super Bowl more than two months ago with major contributions from defensive players on rookie contracts. Cooper DeJean’s star shined with a pick-six in the Super Bowl. Quinyon Mitchell was one of the best shutdown corners in the NFL as a rookie. Jalen Carter will soon be paid a lot of money, but he’s one of the game’s best defensive tackles and is still on his rookie deal.
We saw over the last two months what happens when costs rise. The Eagles couldn’t afford to keep Milton Williams around after his rookie contract expired, though Carter will thank his former teammate, now with the New England Patriots, for helping set the defensive tackle market for him. They couldn’t afford to pay Darius Slay, not when his replacements were already outplaying him anyway. They were not contenders to retain Josh Sweat after the edge rusher nearly won the Super Bowl MVP award. Heck, they even traded away safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson, who was a relatively low-cost player at the back of the secondary.
Roseman and the Eagles’ front office entered this week’s draft with a few holes to fill on defense, and the team used its first five picks to try to plug them. The Eagles, who spend so much effort building in the trenches, needed more talent at edge rusher and linebacker to bolster a front seven that was depleted in free agency. They used their first pick on Jihaad Campbell, a versatile piece who can play both spots.
They needed a backfill for Gardner-Johnson and to give Sydney Brown & Co. some competition in the safety room. So they took Texas safety Andrew Mukuba with the 64th overall pick on Friday night to end the draft’s second round. He’s a bit undersized (5-foot-11, 186 pounds) and wasn’t the third-best safety on most draft boards, but he’ll have a chance to start right away.
» READ MORE: What drafting Andrew Mukuba says about Sydney Brown, Vic Fangio, and the Eagles’ future at safety
They needed to replace Williams, who broke out last season with five sacks, so they took Nebraska defensive tackle Ty Robinson with the ninth pick of the fourth round Saturday afternoon after trading out of the third round Friday night.
All Robinson did was lead college football in quarterback hits among defensive tackles and put up numbers that made him the best overall athlete at his position at the scouting combine.
The Eagles used their first three picks last year on defense, too. They have used a dozen selections in the past four drafts on defensive players in the first four rounds. Not a single defensive player from 2021 remains on the roster.
“Offensively we have a bunch of starters under long-term contracts, starters who are in the prime of their career,” Roseman said. “It allows you to really, on the fly, get young on that side of the ball.
“This year’s draft, we were open to whatever the board told us. Where we were picking, we really felt like we were taking the best guys. We were really sticking to the board.”
The board just so happened to line up with need. Call it a coincidence, and so the rich got richer, as Campbell said late Thursday night after the Eagles selected him.
“When you’re talking about the beginning of the draft, you want impact,” Roseman said. “In the first round, it’s your chance to get a Pro Bowl player, to get a boom player. So we’re looking for that in the first round. Second round we’re trying to get someone who’s a good starter who can make a difference.”
» READ MORE: An absolute baller, Swiss Army knife, hybrid: Eagles top pick Jihaad Campbell has a knack for fitting in.
The Eagles think they got those pieces this weekend, and they’re at positions of great need.
Of course, no one wins a draft on April 26, no matter what the draftniks say. But the Eagles, with their first two (and probably first three) picks, got players you’d expect to see ample playing time right away. More young and inexpensive pieces for Vic Fangio to use however he sees fit. Whether or not they were the right choices won’t be known for some time.
There was some standard moving and shaking from Roseman, who made five trades during the draft. The Eagles traded up Thursday to get Campbell. They moved back twice on Friday and two more times on Saturday. They added another pick to a 2026 draft that is already loaded with them.
To be sure, it wasn’t all defense for the Eagles, who added three offensive linemen and a quarterback — a local one at that in former St. Joseph’s Prep star Kyle McCord — among their 10 picks.
» READ MORE: ‘Surreal moment’: Eagles select QB Kyle McCord in the NFL draft, adding the St. Joseph’s Prep product
But those offensive players all figure to be depth pieces.
Same with the other three players the Eagles picked on defense. There were holes, but not that many. The Eagles were going to return a roster capable of a consecutive Super Bowl before this draft started. But they added to their cornerback room in the fifth round with Central Florida’s Mac McWilliams. They grabbed an edge rusher, Virginia Tech’s Antwaun Powell-Ryland, who led college football in sacks over the last two seasons (26½).
Earlier, in the fifth round, they brought in another linebacker — and eighth Georgia Bulldog on defense, for good measure — in Smael Mondon Jr., whose father was going to be named Ismael before it was misprinted on documentation.
It’s pronounced “smile.”
You have to imagine Fangio was doing plenty of that this weekend as the Eagles replenished his room.