It’s NFL draft season and that means Mel Kiper has emerged from his cave to provide football fans with the whos-who of the 2020 class.
The mock draft season has begun and the one constant has been the Eagles getting married to a wide receiver in the first round. Kiper like Todd McShay before, has the Eagles landing a wide receiver.
For Kiper Jr., it was Clemson All-American Tee Higgins with pick No. 21.
21. Philadelphia Eagles
Tee Higgins, WR, ClemsonPhiladelphia has to upgrade at wide receiver — its two top pass-catchers in 2019 were tight ends Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert — and the depth and talent in this class could set up perfectly for the Eagles to have several options here. At 6-foot-4, Higgins is the biggest wideout of the first-round talents, a jump-ball specialist and a touchdown machine (25 the past two seasons). He’s not super explosive like Lamb, Jeudy or Ruggs, but he’ll box out cornerbacks in the red zone and pick up first downs, not unlike Alshon Jeffery, who struggled to stay on the field this season. The Eagles would have liked more from second-round pick J.J. Arcega-Whiteside in Year 1, and I still like his upside, but Higgins has No. 1 receiver talent. As is always the case for Philadelphia, this is another spot to watch for an edge rusher.
At Clemson, Higgins finished his career with 135 catches for 1,167 yards (18.1 yards per catch) and 27 touchdowns.
25 of those scores came in the past two years. This past season, Higgins averaged 19.8 yards per catch.