Raise your hand if you’re down with the Eagles giving up Donnel Pumphrey for George Kittle.
The draft is a crapshoot. We’ve known that for a while. You can spend years evaluating guys and miss. You can take guys that don’t have a lot of fanfare and watch them become legends. Think Jason Kelce.
No one thought that George Kittle was worth investing some draft capital into until the San Francisco 49ers made him the 146th-overall selection, during Round 5 of the 2017 NFL Draft. Perhaps we all should have thought that one out more.
Original selection: Donnel Pumphrey, San Diego State
It seems ridiculous to state that Donnel Pumphrey was taken 14 spots ahead of George Kittle, but that’s exactly what happened. The Eagles gambled on a running back that entered the league as the all-time leader in rushing yards in NCAA Division I FBS history. They lost big time by doing so.
Pumphrey is out of the NFL now and never registered a single offensive stat for the Philadelphia Eagles or any other team. George Kittle will be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame when his playing days are over. You do the math.
If you’re thinking that the Eagles didn’t need Kittle because they had Zach Ertz and Brent Celek at the time, that’s a fair statement, but you have to admit that having Ertz and Kittle on the same field at the same time sounds amazing.
Now that we have Kittle, we just need someone to toss the rock to Nick Foles during the Philly Special because this, for all intents and purposes, means Trey Burton isn’t making the team now.