What the Eagles Were Looking For In the Draft
Apr 26, 2013; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly addresses the media during a press conference at the NovaCare Complex. Mandatory Credit: Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Every team in the NFL wants to get the best player in the NFL draft and players who have great upside, can make an impact early and a player who excites their fan base. With that being said, there are other thingd like descion making and where a prospect come from that factor in to draft day decisions. After the draft Chip Kelly and Howie Roseman were asked about these underrated aspects of the draft and they said that a players ability to make goo, quick descions as well as where the player came from played roles in who the Eagles selected from Thursday to Saturday.
In order to run Chip Kelly’s up-tempo, no-huddle, players, especially the quarterback, have to be able to make quick reads before the snap and good decisions after the snap. When asked about how important good decision making was to him and how it played a role in the evaluation process, Chip Kelly had this to say:
"“I think it’s a huge part of it. There’s a very cerebral part to this game that I don’t know if people sometimes give enough credit to. It’s about making good decisions. Dumb people do dumb things. Smart people rarely do dumb things.”Kelly went on, saying, “Part of the evaluation that goes along with how fast does someone runs a 40 or how fast does someone run a short shuttle or how strong is he, is the evaluation of them processing [information]. How do they make decisions? Can you count on them day in and day out? Are they dependable? And those are huge components to making decisions. It’s not just a stop-watch and a bench press. There’s so much more that goes into it. Trying to figure out the intangibles.”"
Even before the draft, we knew that good decision making would be the key to the Eagles success this year because turnovers have plagued the team over the last few years and Chip Kelly has reputation for having a short leash with players who turn the ball over or consistantly make bad decisions.
Along with decision making, Howie Roseman was asked why there are so few players drafter from non-BCS schools and why the Eagles didn’t draft any players outside of the BCS.
"“I believe strongly you have to get them where they make them,” he said. “It’s more of the exception that guys come from small schools and make it. I think as you study successful payers in this league, you’re looking at exception. And when you start to become a team of exceptions, you start to have a problem. And I think that is something that is a philosophy of ours and it’s important to us.”"
Along with Roseman’s statement, Kelly said that the SEC produces great defensive linemen, which backs up the selection of Bennie Logan who played for LSU. All of the Eagles draft picks came from BCS schools and it seems that the Eagles believe taking kids from the bigger programs is the way to go.
The Eagles, on paper, did very well this weekend, but it will take time to see how these rookie pan out, but no matter what the outcome may be, the Eagles front office had a pretty good idea of the type of players they wanted and evaluated and created their draft board based on these guidlines, a draftboard that the Eagles frontoffice stuck to throughout the entirety of the draft, which is a very psoitive sign.