Thank goodness the Philadelphia Eagles never drafted Earl Thomas

Once upon a time, 2010’s NFL Draft to be exact, there was a brief moment when we thought the Philadelphia Eagles might draft safety Earl Thomas. You’ll remember we all were thrown a curve ball.

There were a ton of stories surrounding the 2010 NFL Draft and what the Philadelphia Eagles might do. After trading up, the theory of many of the draft experts, the NFL Network‘s Mike Mayock included, was Philly would turn their attention to finding a replacement for their long-time free safety and legend, Brian Dawkins. That led many to believe they’d go with Earl Thomas of the Texas Longhorns.

We were all forgetting one thing. This was Andy Reid we were talking about. Sure there were first-round selections like wide receiver Jeremy Maclin on his resume, but more often than not, he’d butcher things. Nine times out of ten, Reid always went with an offensive lineman or a defensive lineman. Normally, he took the wrong one (think Trevor Laws or Danny Watkins).

On this night, April 22nd of 2010, Reid threw the experts and Philly a curve ball and went with Brandon Graham from the Michigan Wolverines.

Many of us had the same thought. ‘Here we go again’.

Two of the NFL’s best take different paths to the same destination.

Both Thomas and Graham have paid dividends in their NFL careers. They’ve just done so on opposite ends of the same spectrum. Thomas got off to a blistering start, proving he belonged in the league immediately. For Graham, he’d do the same thing. It just took longer for the light to come on.

Thomas, though not the player he was earlier, is still one of the league’s best safeties. Age and what was once a career-threatening injury have caused him to lose a step (slightly), but no one will blame him for that. We all get older with time. Well, most of us do.

Graham has found some sort of fountain of youth and has gotten better with time, and what we’ve seen from him over the past few years has proven to us why the 13th-overall selection was used on him in the first place. He’s also the owner of the most famous strip-sack in team history and has shown no signs of slowing down.

Those of us who had a little buyer’s remorse early are aware of our mistake. Graham was the right choice for Philly, and Thomas was the right choice for the Seattle Seahawks.

Next: Brian Dawkins receives his gold jacket

Then, there’s another thing. There’s also all of that talk of Thomas’ desire to play with the Dallas Cowboys. That alone is a conflict of interests if we’ve ever heard one. You may have heard that Thomas is a lifelong Cowboys fan and does everything he can to get himself in front of a television to see them play.

There’s no way he could have ever been an Eagles safety with that being the case.

Oh, and by the way, it took a while to find Brian Dawkins’ replacement, but they finally did in the form of Malcolm Jenkins. His hard work, hard-hitting style and leadership makes Eagles fans think of the days when ‘Number 20’ patrolled the back end of the Eagles defense.