Philadelphia Eagles strange draft relationship with Minnesota continues

With the most recent NFL Draft now in the books, the focus now shifts to undrafted free agents and daydreaming about what your favorite team’s roster will look like. The Philadelphia Eagles, at the time of this story being published, have added seven new guys to the squad post-draft, but here’s an angle that you may not have thought of.

The Minnesota Vikings have, again, made a living by picking after the Birds and picking up promising prospects that Philly chose to ignore. It happened last year in 2020’s NFL Draft when the Eagles chose Jalen Reagor at 21 before the Vikes landed Justin Jefferson one spot later at 22. You all know how that worked out.

Here we are, one year later, and if you didn’t really pay attention to what Minnesota did, look at it this way. The Vikings may have taken the measure of the Philadelphia Eagles twice

Here’s more about the Philadelphia Eagles’ strange connection to the Vikes.

Philly did a nice job with their first two picks landing the man universally seen as the draft’s third-best wide receiver in DeVonta Smith and what might be the class’s best interior lineman in Landon Dickerson.

The third round is where things got weird. Philly took Milton Williams. What was crazy about that is this. He seemed shocked himself. The Eagles left several of the better corners on the board by doing so (Paulson Adebo, Elijah Molden, Ifeatu Melifonwu). The Vikings landed Chazz Surratt, one of the class’s better linebackers, six spots later, someone who could have added tremendous value at a position of need for Philly.

He’s also someone that understands the subtle nuances of playing the quarterback position having played there himself.

Then came the fourth round on Day 3. The Birds settled on Zech McPhearson, a very capable cornerback but one that hails from a conference where defense is seldomly taken seriously. They ignored the Vikings’ choice, Camryn Bynum by doing so. He’s someone quite a few scouts had ranked higher than McPhearson.

No one should take anything away from Williams or McPhearson, but, stop us all if this sounds familiar. In the coming season, if you hear special things about Surratt and Bynum and the narrative becomes Philly should have taken them over the guys they actually selected, don’t be surprised.

Once upon a time, Philly slapped the Vikings around in the Divisional Round before taking the measure of the Atlanta Falcons to get to Super Bowl XXXIX. 13 years later, the Birds disposed of the Falcons in the Divisional Round before beating the Vikes in the NFC Championship on January 21st.