Report: Eagles showed interest in Zach Wilson before trading down

With a month to go before the 2021 NFL Draft, the Eagles are already making moves.

The Birds on Friday capped off a flurry of NFL moves by trading down from their No. 6 pick to No. 12 in a trade with the Miami Dolphins, who had just traded down from 3 to 12.

In the trade, the Eagles picked up No. 12, No. 123 (fourth round) and a first-round pick in 2022. The Dolphins got No. 6 and No. 156 (fifth round).

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NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport initially said the Eagles were interested in trading up to No. 3, but only for BYU's Zach Wilson.

He later walked back that report some.

Rephrasing an earlier tweet for clarity: Early on in the draft prospect, the #Eagles felt Zach Wilson was a strong prospect, but for where they are, they felt moving back and collecting a future 1st rounder was a better way to build a team.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 26, 2021

This is interesting.

We all know that the Jaguars are going to take Trevor Lawrence from Clemson with the No. 1 pick but this really signals that the Jets are going to take Zach Wilson from BYU with the second pick. Howie Roseman and Joe Douglas obviously have a good relationship from their time working together in Philly, so it would make sense if Douglas told Roseman he wouldn’t be able to get Wilson at No. 3.

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Wilson’s BYU pro day was held on Friday and the Eagles were reportedly represented there by OC Shane Steichen and QBs coach Brian Johnson. Those were the same two coaches who attended Trey Lance’s pro day earlier in the month.

An ESPN report came out this offseason claiming that owner Jeff Lurie gave a directive to build around Jalen Hurts, but Roseman denied that. And this NFL Network report seems to back that up.

So what does that mean for Hurts? Well, it means that it looks like the Eagles are going to ride with him this season but aren’t completely sold on him, right? Because they were reportedly willing to move up and snag one of the top QBs in this class if they were able to.

I’ve said for a while now that I think the Eagles would be wise to stick with Hurts this year but they owed it to themselves to do homework on these top QBs to see if they fell in love with one. It seems like they might have fallen in love with Wilson but they were unable to get there.

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