Once again, Philadelphia Eagles general manager is showing the rest of the NFL how things should be done. Roseman’s team has the 10th overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft as a result of a trade with the New Orleans Saints, and their 30th overall pick because they made it all the way to the Super Bowl. What should Roseman and his crew do with those two first-round picks? Not that Doug Farrar and Kyle Madson are in a position to tell Roseman how to do his job, but they do have a few well-considered ideas.
Doug: Now, if the Eagles wanted to trade up in the top 10, or hope that Jalen Carter might slide to 10, this is a potentially great environment. New defensive coordinator Sean Desai is a veteran and highly-respected coach, and this move would reunite Carter with Georgia teammates Jordan Davis and Nakobe Dean. But for now, I have Philly taking Jaxson Smith-Njigba 10th overall. Good luck defending him, A.J. Brown, and DeVonta Smith when you have to keep at least one eye on the Eagles’ quarterback-centric run game. No fun at all.
I also have the Eagles taking a Georgia defender with their 30th pick, and that’s edge-rusher Nolan Smith, who completely dominated the combine after losing a lot of his 2022 season to injury. When healthy, Smith isn’t the most powerful disruptor at 6-foot-2 and 238 pounds, but he’s stronger than you may think, and the Eagles will likely continue to lean on a lot of five-man fronts. If you are an opposing offensive tackle, the last thing you want to see is Smith and Haason Reddick coming at you from either side of a bear front with no worries about the inside shoulder. Again, no fun at all.
Kyle: How do teams keep letting Howie Roseman get away with this?! Putting JSN in Philly would be a war crime and I personally will not allow it. It would certainly track though. He’s awesome and I think NFL teams will value him relatively highly. Honestly though I wouldn’t be surprised if Smith is their pick at 10. His torn pec in November is apparently behind him and if teams believe he’s ready to go for training camp I think he’ll be a top 10 or 15 pick. He’s a monster off the edge and a truly special athlete for his size. Putting him on an already-dominant Philly DL would be as unfair as putting JSN in their receiving corps.
At 30 I think if a TE like Dalton Kincaid or Luke Musgrave falls they’d make a ton of sense for the Eagles. Going 2 TEs with one of those guys and Dallas Goedert would be just as nightmarish as Smith-Njigba from a scheme and personnel grouping versatility standpoint. 12 personnel with Goedert and Kincaid or Musgrave would give new offensive coordinator Brian Johnson a ton of options to bend defenses into impossible spots.