Philadelphia Eagles worst draft pick since 2006 won’t shock you

As Philadelphia Eagles fans, we love them sometimes. We can’t stand what they come up with at other times. Then, there are other still times when we don’t have any idea of what they’re talking about. Pro Football Focus moves the needle though, and despite the fact that there should probably be some sort of honors class to teach us, for once and for all, how those rankings and numbers of theirs work, you have to admit something.

Even when it feels like they have no idea what they’re talking about, what they’re doing is always worth a look. Over the past few weeks, they’ve ranked everything from position groups to players to each team’s entire roster, but recently, they took another angle, one that Birds fans might actually be able to universally agree on.

PFF names Danny Watkins as the Philadelphia Eagles’ worst draft pick since 2006.

Even had you known you’d miss the first night of the 2011 NFL Draft, you scheduled your DVR to record it, and you had someone spoil it for you by telling you that the Philadelphia Eagles took a 26-year-old lineman, you would have still been shocked when the pick was made. That’s a promise.

At the risk of bringing up another bad draft memory, here goes. Do you remember how shocked you felt when the Eagles took Jalen Hurts in Round 2 of the 2020 NFL Draft? Multiply that feeling by 100, and you still won’t equal how bad fans felt when the announcement was made and Danny Watkins was Philly’s choice.

Pro Football Focus recently named him as the worst Eagles draft choice since 2006. Here’s what Michael Renner, the writer of this one had to say.

"Another team with a strong track record in the first round. Still, Watkins was an odd pick at the time as a 26-year-old guard and didn’t pan out. He washed out of Philly in two years and the NFL in three."

Sure, we all tried to be positive, but Danny wouldn’t let us. Everything about him felt like it was meant to irritate us. The way he walked to the stage was annoying. The way he laughed was annoying. Danny Watkins just looked like someone who wouldn’t succeed at the highest level of football. It was once said, though no one remembers who said it, that Andy Reid liked Danny Watkins because Danny liked football. Well, heck. Don’t we all? That doesn’t mean that any of us should ever be a first-round selection in any draft though, right?

In two seasons and 23 games in an Eagles jersey (he was also on the roster for one game for the Miami Dolphins in 2013), Watkins made 18 starts. Philly passed on other notable talents like Cameron Jordan, who the New Orleans Saints took one spot later at 24, Muhammad Wilkerson (Come on. He was good for a couple of seasons), and Cameron Heyward. That alone is enough to make you throw something, but how about this?

How about we just say it? For more reasons than one, Danny Watkins isn’t just the worst draft pick the Birds have made over the course of the past 15 seasons, and that’s saying a ton. He’s probably the worst selection of Andy Reid’s era, which is also saying a lot, and one of the worst draft choices that the Birds have made in franchise history. He was truly awful.