INDIANAPOLIS — I have finally made it to Indy for the annual scouting combine but before a busy week begins, I wanted to empty out the Twitter mailbag.
Thanks for all the questions.
We got enough to split them into multiple parts:
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Part 3:
Nah, I can’t see four first-round picks. Maybe that’s what the Seahawks ask for Russell Wilson, but that price would be a little too high. With that said, the Eagles have never been secretive on the way the feel about Wilson. They wanted him in the 2012 draft and got too cute. Wilson has gone on to have a Hall of Fame career and even though he’s 33 now, is still one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL. Folks have talked about his decline but I’m not so sure about that. Before his finger injury last season, he was still pretty good. And this is a guy who has been in the league for 10 years and has been a Pro Bowler nine times.
If he becomes available — even after all the nice things the Eagles have said about Jalen Hurts — I still think they’d owe it to themselves to see what it would take. Because I think Hurts will continue to get better but it’s hard for me to imagine that his ceiling will ever be as high as Wilson is right now … or anywhere close.
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So what would it take? Well, it probably starts with two first-round picks and that wouldn’t be enough, but the Eagles shouldn’t trade away all three of their first-round picks in 2022. So two first-round picks another high pick next year and/or the year after and a player or two, possibly including Hurts. That seems like a reasonable price for a player like Wilson.
The other obvious hurdle is the no-trade clause in Wilson’s contract. He would need to be OK with coming to Philly and it’s unclear if he would be.
None of this is to say that Hurts doesn’t deserve to be the starter next year. He was good enough and showed enough improvement in 2021 to make me think that he should be the starter in 2022. And I wouldn’t toss him aside for a draft pick or for a quarterback that might be slightly better and without the upside. The only way Hurts isn’t the starter in 2022, in my eyes, is if the Eagles land a superstar quarterback. And Wilson qualifies as that.
The Eagles lost Isaac Seumalo to a Lisfranc injury early in the 2021 season. He played just three games in 2021 and that came after he played just nine games in 2020. So the injuries are a concern. Seumalo has been the Eagles’ full-time starter at left guard since he replaced Stefen Wisniewski back in 2018 and he’s played at a decent level. He has never played to a Pro Bowl level like some thought he would, but he’s been solid.
After he went down in 2021, the Eagles moved Landon Dickerson from right guard to left guard and Dickerson played well enough down the stretch to make me think the Eagles should never move him from that spot. That’s obviously a tough call and the Eagles think Dickerson can play on either side. But I look at him and Jordan Mailata on the left side of that line and picture them playing next to each other for the next decade. So where does that leave Seumalo?
Well, if Jason Kelce retires, I’d put Seumalo at center. I know it’s been many years since the 2016 draft but the Eagles thought Seumalo could play center back then and he can still play it now, as long as he comes back healthy. Eagles OL coach Jeff Stoutland has always raved about Seumalo’s intelligence. His teammates have said it’s like playing with two centers on the field when Seumalo and Kelce are out there together. So for those reasons, I think he’d still be able to replace Kelce.
If Kelce is back in 2022, then I’d move Seumalo to right guard to replace Brandon Brooks. The Eagles seem to like Jack Driscoll but he’s struggled to stay healthy in his first two NFL seasons and keeping him on the bench gives them a really versatile sixth-man on the OL.
Perhaps there’s an outside chance the Eagles move on from Seumalo, a move that would offer them some cap savings, but he’s still too valuable to them to do that just yet.
This is a fair question. The easiest answer would be to look at where they were drafted — and I think that plays a role — but to me it comes down to 2017. That year we saw Carson Wentz play at an MVP level. Now, maybe it was unfair to expect him to ever play that well again, but there was proof on tape of him being an elite quarterback. He was already one of the best players in the entire league that year and for the rest of his time in Philly the organization hoping he could find that magic again. It, of course, never came. We haven’t seen Hurts play anywhere near that level yet. We don’t know if he can.
And the draft thing plays a role too. It might seem unfair that Hurts is thought of differently because of where he was drafted. But it’s important to remember that these guys weren’t drafted in different rounds based on luck. They were evaluated and then drafted. So there were deficiencies in Hurts’ game that left him to the second round. That’s not to say he won’t become a great player. Heck, earlier we were talking about Wilson, who was a third-round pick back in 2012. But Wentz was the No. 2 overall pick for a reason and by the time we were talking about his sixth season, the Eagles had already invested heavily in him.
This was one of the rare under-the-radar stories in 2021. You’re right; the Eagles stockpiled young cornerbacks. And on their roster right now they have five cornerbacks who are 24 or younger: Tay Gowan, Mac McCain III, Zech McPhearson, Josiah Scott, Kary Vincent Jr.
Of that group, McPhearson (a 2021 fourth-rounder) had the biggest role on the team last season as a special teamer, while Scott emerged in an expanded special teams role late in the year.
I look at it like the Eagles decided to play a numbers game here. They haven’t had great luck drafting cornerbacks but they had an opportunity to bring in a bunch of young ones, let them develop and see what sticks. If one of those guys ends up being a player, it was worth it.
I’m very curious to see when Sanders gets a new deal and what that new deal will look like. The biggest roadblock for a Sanders extension is that the guy has really struggled to stay healthy. Now, running back is obviously a position that lends itself to injury but Sanders has played in just 12 games in each of the last two years and has dealt with a plethora of different injuries. The thing is, when he’s healthy, Sanders is very good. He has averaged 5.1 yards per carry since entering the league in 2019. Among running backs with at least 300 carries, that ranks third in the NFL during that span behind Nick Chubb (5.3) and Jonathan Taylor (5.3).
So Sanders has been productive as a runner but hasn’t been as successful as a receiver since his rookie year. He’s also dealt with a ton of injuries as he enters a contract season. All that makes it really tough to figure out what he’s worth.
But if Sanders gets off to a fast start in 2022 and is healthy throughout the first half of the season or so, I’d think the Eagles will work to re-sign him before he gets close to free agency, as long as the deal works for both sides and isn’t outlandish.
1. I don’t know how under-the-radar this really is, but how about Mo Alie-Cox from Indianapolis. The former VCU basketball player has turned into a pretty good NFL tight end and he did it in Indianapolis with Jason Michael as his position coach. Michael is now with the Eagles in the same position. Not saying that the Eagles would get a huge discount because of that but there’s reason to believe that Michael can still get the most out of Alie-Cox. The Eagles are set at TE1 with Dallas Goedert but could use an upgrade over UDFA Jack Stoll at the TE2 position. Stoll was a really solid blocker in 2021 but doesn’t offer much as a receiver. So tight end might not be the most pressing need but adding a player like Alie-Cox could work.
2. Something tells me Sanders will be back in 2023. So I’ll go with Sanders, Kenny Gainwell and two players who aren’t here yet. Boston Scott might be back in 2022 but he’s a UDFA in 2023 so he will likely be gone after that. There’s a chance the Eagles could draft a running back this year or next as well. I’ll really go out on a limb and name Florida running back Dameon Pierce as a draft target in April. If I’m right, please remember this and call me a genius. If I’m wrong, it never happened.
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