Philadelphia Eagles roundup: Philly heads to ‘Bama, Jacobs runs a slow 40

The Philadelphia Eagles send eyes to Tuscaloosa for the Alabama Crimson Tide’s Pro Day, and someone they’ve been watching, Josh Jacobs, turns in a slow 40 time.

The Philadelphia Eagles met with a ton of running backs at the most recent NFL Combine. No one was surprised. Over the past two seasons, they’ve managed to strike gold by finding two talented ball carriers in the post-draft stage in the form of Corey Clement and Josh Adams.

With there being no real attempt to acquire a running back when the free agency period began, many questioned whether or not the Eagles would invest a first-round selection, the 25th-overall in their case, in a ball carrier.

These days, the theory is no NFL team wants to use a high draft pick on someone who plays the NFL’s most punishing position unless he’s a generational type of talent (think Adrian Peterson, Ezekiel Elliott or Saquon Barkley).

Thanks to last season’s success, the Eagles are slotted at the draft’s 25th selection. On March 19th, they sent eyes to Tuscaloosa for the Alabama Crimson Tide Pro Day. The theory is they may have done so, primarily, to see Josh Jacobs, one of the guys they sat with at the Combine.

Then again, with the possibility of Jacobs being off of the board when Philly’s on the clock, there are other options. One was one of Jacobs’ backfield mates, Damien Harris. He racked up 876 yards and nine touchdowns in 2018. Might Philly be interested in him as well?

They’ve also got two very impressive linebackers, Mack Wilson and Jamey Mosley. Philly definitely needs one of those. Here’s some of a conversation had with Wilson:

Jacobs is now the subject of talk for a bad reason. In familiar surroundings, he turned in a slow 40-yard dash time. That resulted in some criticism and a few tweets like these two from Daniel Jeremiah:

Here’s some footage of his first attempt.

Former Eagles scout John Middlekauff‏ weighed in as well, and it wasn’t pretty.

Fair or unfair, this could result in Jacobs dropping on a few teams’ draft boards. If Jacobs is, indeed, the man ‘The Birds’ want, this could increase their chances of landing him. No one seems to be certain of that though, not even the Eagles themselves.

Two things are certain. On one hand, we can argue that Philly gained and lost interest in Jacobs on Tuesday. On the other, when you visit a team that routinely churns out NFL talent, they may have found a few other guys to throw on the draft board (if they weren’t there already).