You thought mock draft season was over?
You thought wrong.
Sure, we just made it through the 2019 draft, but that hasn’t stopped these mock-drafting animals from getting right back on the horse. Before long that horse will die and these guys will be beating it. But we have our first of the 2020 NFL mock drafts.
I rounded up 10 of them and they all have the Eagles picking between 23 and 26, based on Vegas odds to win the Super Bowl.
Here are their mocked picks:
LB Paddy Fisher (Northwestern) — Ben Standig (NBC Sports Washington)
CB CJ Henderson (Florida) — Luke Easterling (USA Today)
NFL
LB Paddy Fisher (Northwestern) — Bill Bender (Sporting News)
Edge Yetur Gross-Matos (Penn State) — Trevor Sikkema (The Draft Network)
LB Troy Dye (Oregon) — Dane Brugler (The Athletic)
CB Jaylon Johnson (Utah) — Matt Miller (Bleacher Report)
LB Jacob Phillips (LSU) — Seth Trachtman (YardBarker)
CB Jaylon Johnson (Utah) — Eric Single (MMQB)
S/LB Isaiah Simmons (Clemson) — Dan Kadar (SB Nation)
DT Lorenzo Neal (Purdue) — Ryan Wilson (CBS Sports)
All defense! Maybe this is a reaction to the Eagles’ going offense with their first three picks in this most recent draft. The mock-drafters are trying to insert balance back into the world.
If you consider Simmons a linebacker (and I do) that’s five of 10 saying the Eagles will draft a linebacker in the first round. A friendly reminder: The Eagles haven’t drafted a linebacker in the first round since they took Jerry Robinson out of UCLA in 1979. They had a pretty big need for one in this last class and they didn’t take one at all. So it seems the Eagles just don’t value the position as much as fans want them to. And the idea of Howie Roseman taking a linebacker from Oregon (Chip Kelly’s former home) just makes me chuckle. Two votes for Paddy Fisher from Northwestern.
Also two votes for cornerback Jaylon Johnson from Utah. Because it’s so early, I have no idea what the Eagles’ situation at cornerback will be by next year’s draft. They have a bunch of young and talented corners, so some of those guys could really prove themselves or cornerback could be a desperate need if they all fail.
The crazy thing here is that just one mock-drafter had the Eagles taking a lineman. The Eagles have been pretty honest about how much they value taking linemen, both with their words and with their actions. Wilson gets it.
This will be our first mock draft roundup of about a thousand before April 2020. But we’ll make sure it gets a little closer before we do another one.
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