Philadelphia Eagles: Looking at obituary from 2019 season

Poor Drafting

Drafting is a tricky business, no one is going to deny that. Despite all the money, resources, analytics and scouting hours spent reviewing college prospects, no team really has ever earned much of a competitive edge when it comes to drafting success.

Most teams seem to hover around a 50-60 percent success rate, and never really do well enough to be considered elite.

The poor drafting of the Eagles seems to be less about who they’ve drafted, but rather how they have drafted. Roseman seems more than willing to throw in draft picks to move up in the draft and can get aggressive in free agency, trading draft picks in exchange for key players.

There is nothing wrong with either of those strategies, that is when your team has their standard amount of picks every year.

Unfortunately, the Eagles seem to have less picks than they should in recent years.

This happens a lot with competitive teams who are trying to make a playoff push since general managers get tunnel vision, and the highlight reel of a desired player gets run in the scouting department.

From there, everyone is convinced the targeted players will be the missing piece needed to make a playoff push.

In the 2019 NFL Draft, the Eagles had just five draft picks. Coincidentally, Philadelphia had five picks the year before as well.

That is only 10 new players with price-controlled rookie contracts in the last two years. And when you consider that the 2019 fifth-round pick for the Eagles, Clayton Thorson, was released before the season even started, it’s actually only nine players.

The players Philadelphia has drafted in the past two drafts have varied in degree and accomplishment so far. It would be unfair to judge a player based on two seasons, but what some of them have put forward has been disappointing to say the least. 2019 second-round pick JJ Arcega-Whiteside had a disappointing rookie season.

As for the 2019 first-round pick, who the Eagles traded a pick to move up for, left tackle Andre Dillard looked average at best in games he played in this season.

2018 fourth-round pick Avonte Maddox has shown flashes at times, but he is a backup cornerback at best. Josh Sweat was injured most of his rookie season and has been a backup most of this season.

Sadly, the only bright spot from 2018 has been tight end Dallas Goedert, who has looked like he could develop into an elite weapon on offense, and draws a lot of similarities to Ertz, which is fine.

Goedert is a fine player and certainly worthy of a starting role on the team, but you have to admit he is somewhat redundant.

Roseman has been the general manager for the Eagles since 2010, but his draft record still remains questionable.

Philadelphia’s first-round pick from 2017 Derek Barnett has been a dominant defensive end, but the penalties he racks up in key moments of the game will make any fan pull out their hair.

The point is, this team needs to do a better job at managing its draft capital going into 2020 and beyond. With the ink dry on the Wentz contract extension, this team will need to focus more on building through the draft instead of free agency.

It will be interesting to see what direction the scouting department goes in the future without Joe Douglas, the former Vice President of Player Personnel who is now the New York Jets general manager. Douglas joined the Eagles in 2016 after Kelly was deposed from personnel decisions and was a key figure it the scouting department.

No matter who is making the decisions regarding the roster in 2020, no team will be going far if the next cause of death is not stopped and soon.