Philadelphia Eagles Draft Needs: A Look At Offensive Guard
The Philadelphia Eagles need to draft an offensive lineman capable of starting from day one of the 2015 NFL season. Here’s why:
After a very good season in 2013, the offensive line of the Philadelphia Eagles took a big step back in 2014. Per Football Outsiders, the Eagles’ o-line was ranked 29th in Adjusted Line Yards – a formula which aims at showing how good or bad an offensive line was at run blocking. The Eagles’ “big uglies” ranked 26th in the Staffed category, which means they were only six teams with more running attempts that resulted in zero yards gained or negative yards, while in the pass protection category, the Eagles “big uglies” ranked ninth.
Chip Kelly’s offense in Philadelphia is very run-oriented. It might have been labeled innovative at times, but the goal is really simple and nothing new to the NFL: establish the run to create more and better passing opportunities. The Eagles will most likely continue with this philosophy because it has worked for them most often than not and because of their situation at quarterback.
In 2014, injuries played a big part in the decline of the offensive line. The Eagles started nine different offensive linemen last season and missed key members of the line for many games. Hopefully, the bad luck won’t continue for the Eagles’ linemen in 2015, but the team needs also to account for the loss of right guard Todd Herremans.
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Herremans was cut and is now with the Indianapolis Colts. When he was put on IR last season, Matt Tobin and Andrew Gardner took his place on the line. Both struggled and while the Philadelphia Eagles will have Allen Barbre available in 2015 (he was also on IR last season), nothing guarantees that any of them will replace Herremans adequately.
Which leads me to believe the Birds will be looking for a starting right guard in the 2015 NFL Draft. They already worked out Terry Poole, an offensive tackle from San Diego State who looks more like an NFL guard than tackle.
More recently, they hosted Jeremiah Poutasi of Utah. Putasi was also a tackle in college, but I don’t think he is really a fit for the Eagles. He is not as agile and fast as Kelly likes his linemen in his zone-blocking scheme.
One more name to keep among your notes is Mitch Morse of Mizzouri. The kid is extremely athletic and can add weight to his frame. He is not a very good player, but he is projected to go in the very late rounds so drafting him is definitely worth the risk. Here is his spider graph, thanks to Mockdraftable.com:
On the other hand, the Philadelphia Eagles could decide to address the offensive line early in the draft. Most of the offensive guard prospects don’t make much sense for Philly, so I can see only two legitimate options.
One is Brandon Scherff, assuming he slips a bit, I can see the Birds trading up to get him. He is by far the best offensive line prospect in the draft and looks like a player who fits the Eagles’ o-line like a glove. The other option is the Eagles to reach for Jake Fisher, the offensive tackle from Oregon. Fisher has great potential, but his tape from college doesn’t justify a first-round pick for him. On the other hand, he has much more value for the Eagles and their scheme so he can be higher on their draft board.
Out of these two scenarios, it goes without saying that the first is the least possible to happen come draft day.