How Ringo knew Eagles were interested in him

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As Day 3 of the NFL Draft was set to begin on Thursday, the name standing out to the Eagles was Kelee Ringo.

They showed that when they traded away a 2024 third-round pick — an unusual move for the franchise — to get near the top of the fourth round to pick him.

But the Eagles were standing out for Ringo too.

“At that point in time, I was like, one of the best situations would be for me to go to the Eagles for sure,” Ringo said after getting selected on Saturday. “Just inside thinking.”

Ringo, who doesn’t turn 21 until late June, got plenty of first-round buzz in this year’s pre-draft process. The Georgia corner obviously went much later than that but has a ton of upside.

Why did he go so much later than expected? NFL Network’s Ian Rapaport mentioned on air some questions about character and medicals after a shoulder injury earlier in his college career. Perhaps those were reasons he slide, but those were not issues for the Eagles, Howie Roseman said.

“I know there were reports,” Roseman said on Saturday. “We watched the draft there in our draft room. We don't have a question about his work ethic. We don't have a question about his medical.”

Maybe Ringo’s personality had something to do with his perceived slide but that wasn’t a concern for the Eagles. In fact, Ringo said he has a “great experience” at the NovaCare Complex for his top-30 visit, meeting with his new coaches.

One meeting really stood out.

“I would say specifically talking to Coach (D.K.) McDonald,” Ringo said. “He's a great, bright guy. Somebody like that. I feel like in the meeting room he tried to apply a little bit more pressure on me, for sure, from the learning standpoint, and I feel like I was able to overcome that overall. Me coming from the University of Georgia, that's all Coach (Kirby) Smart does to us is try to put us in hard situations and make us think overall and see how you can grow from that.

“I feel like those type of coaches realize when they can put that type of pressure on somebody and them overcome that, then being on the field out there, being able to execute things like that, it's only the little things. So I feel like that's one of the things that stood out to me.”

McDonald was promoted by the Eagles to defensive backs coach, replacing Dennard Wilson, who was passed over for the defensive coordinator job. McDonald was previously the assistant defensive backs coach and has known Nick Sirianni since their days together at IUP.

The Eagles are in a pretty good spot with their corners going into 2023. They have Darius Slay and James Bradberry solidified as their starters and Avonte Maddox as the nickel gives the Birds a really strong group.

Early in his career, Ringo can compete to be a top backup but he definitely has the potential to eventually be a starter. And with the Eagles, he’ll have the opportunity to learn behind a couple of Pro Bowlers.

Ringo definitely had to wait longer than expected to hear his name called but he feels like the landed in a pretty good spot. Not only is he joining a team coming off a Super Bowl appearance but he’s also joining a bunch of his former Georgia teammates in Philly.

“Man, I'm just overall thankful just to be able to get the opportunity to be on the team, let alone a team where all my friends are going to be on,” Ringo said. “It's just a great position to be in and a great opportunity. I'm definitely going to seize my opportunity for sure.”

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