The top interior offensive line prospect in this year’s draft, Cody Ford is an intriguing prospect who hasn’t played very much football, although he did block for two pretty good QBs at Oklahoma in Kyler Murray and Baker Mayfield.
Ford is seen as a guard in the NFL, at least to start off, and that’s where he played early in his college career, but he is athletic enough that when injury forced him to move to right tackle this past fall, he earned third-team All-America honors.
Ford, who stands 6-foot-4, 330 pounds, started only 21 games in college, seven at guard. So he’s a raw prospect with a tremendous amount of upside. But with his natural power, athleticism and intelligence there’s no reason he can’t be a productive NFL starter immediately at guard.
Current roster at G: A ton of question marks. Brandon Brooks is one of the NFL’s best but is coming off Achilles surgery and nobody knows when he’ll be ready to play. Stefen Wisniewski, who started 27 games at guard for the Eagles the last three years, is gone. Isaac Seumalo has started 15 games in three years but remains something of a mystery. And there’s really nobody else, although Matt Pryor, a sixth-rounder last year, will get a look in camp.
How he would fit: If the Eagles drafted Ford, he’d be their starting left guard by the end of the day.
Eagles history at G in draft: The Eagles drafted guards in the first round in 1996 and 2004, and both became Pro Bowlers — Jermane Mayberry and Shawn Andrews. Andrews was a two-time first-team All-Pro but for a variety of reasons never really played after his 25th birthday. The only guard the Eagles have taken in the first round since Andrews was a 26-year-old ice hockey player who was more interested in being a fireman than playing football. Seumalo is the only center-guard they’ve taken in the first five rounds of the last seven drafts.
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