Philadelphia Eagles Focusing On Defense At Senior Bowl

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Senior Bowl week is here, the first of many important events for NFL draft prospects leading up to the big day. This week is a chance for the seniors to standout in front of multiple representatives from every single team in the league.

But for the Philadelphia Eagles in particular, it seems that they are honed in on the defensive side of the ball this year. Of their twelve reported meetings with players at the event so far, ten of them are on defense. Here’s a full list including each prospect the birds have had contact with so far:

  • Utah cornerback/safety Eric Rowe
  • USC cornerback Josh Shaw
  • Miami (OH) cornerback Quinten Rollins
  • Penn State defensive end Deion Barnes
  • Louisville linebacker Lorenzo Mauldin
  • Miami linebacker Denzel Perryman
  • Penn State linebacker Mike Hull
  • Washington linebacker Hau’oli Kikaha
  • Michigan State safety Kurtis Drummond
  • Ole Miss safety Cody Prewitt
  • Miami wide receiver Phillip Dorsett
  • Ohio State wide receiver Devin Smith

Of course there are players the Eagles have met with that nobody knows about yet or may never know about. Also, just because a player is or isn’t interviewed, it doesn’t mean the team likes or dislikes that player more than another. For example, according to NJ.com’s Eliot Shorr-Parks, USC cornerback Josh Shaw was asked about an incident from earlier this past season.

Either way, it’s still eye-opening to see the team is making such a concentrated effort to contact so many of the defensive players at the event. It’s especially notable that the team seems to be focusing on the back two levels of the defense and not the defensive line. Luckily, the team should be set up-front on defense for quite a while with plenty of young talent already on the roster such as Fletcher Cox, Bennie Logan, Cedric Thornton, Vinny Curry and Beau Allen.

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It was clear that the secondary was a huge weakness for the team last year and something has to get done. It’s just good to see, as fans, that the team realizes it as well. The amount of linebackers they are interviewing is intriguing since DeMeco Ryans and Trent Cole aren’t getting any younger and are both set to make a questionable amount of money at this point in their respective careers. While Brandon Graham is going to be an unrestricted free agent this off-season.

The Senior Bowl is especially important for Eagles’ fans now more then ever since head coach Chip Kelly has taken over the reigns as the lead talent evaluator. Now all of the decisions will fall directly on Kelly’s shoulders and everyone will know who had final say.

During his first two seasons as the head coach in Philadelphia, Kelly has drafted 15 total players, including 6 that participated in the Senior Bowl. That means nearly half of the players that the Eagles have drafted since Kelly has been there have participated in this event.

It’s incredibly important to keep an eye on who the team is looking at and talking to throughout the rest of this week. We will be sure to have all of the latest updates regarding the Eagles at the Senior Bowl right here on Inside the Iggles!

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