Philadelphia Eagles 2017 draft class will forever be seen as a disaster

The Philadelphia Eagles 2017 draft class was a colossal failure.

Do you remember when Joe Douglas’ name began circulating as a possible general manager hire for some other team? Do you remember when there were so many Philadelphia Eagles fans that were hoping the team could hold onto him? Well, we totally missed on that one, didn’t we?

Looking back on his drafts and looking at our most recent 2020 53-man roster projections can make many of us feel like we’re looking at a shattered March Madness bracket.

Heading into 2017’s NFL Draft, we all knew that the ‘Birds’ needed help at cornerback. They took two, one in the second round and one in the third. A little over three years later, neither of them will play a fourth season for the Eagles.

Heading into the final hours for NFL teams to announce their active rosters, we learned of the Eagles decisions to move on from Sidney Jones and Rasul Douglas. The 2017 Eagles draft class is now, officially, a disaster. Nathan Gerry and Derek Barnett are the only remaining members of that draft class who are still on the roster, and if we’re being honest, there’s no reason to be excited about him.

Hope hangs on by a thread for Philadelphia Eagles fans.

If you’re a ‘Birds’ fan, there’s still hope for ’96’, even if it is slim. The ‘Birds’ exercised his fifth-year option earlier this offseason, but for a top-14 draft pick, what this team has gotten so far has been pathetic. What’s even more depressing is what they got from Jones was worse.

In 22 career games with eight starts in the regular season, his resume consists of 50 tackles, two picks, and ten pass breakups. Douglas, believe it or not, was better (46 regular-season games with 18 starts, five picks, 25 pass breakups, and 118 tackles), but both are part of a junkpile that now includes Mack Hollins, Donnel Pumphrey, Shelton Gibson, and Elijah Qualls.

This is why the salary cap is in shambles. This is why you have to keep bringing back Vinny Curry, and why you have to bring back Jason Peters, and why these guys keep coming back over and over again. This is why this team keeps signing overpriced free agents to cover for these misses in the draft. This team isn’t hitting on these picks.