3 NFL Draft errors the Philadelphia Eagles have to stop repeating

The Eagles haven’t drafted based on immediate need with any consistency.

Should teams draft players based on current needs, or should they just take the best player available? We’ve debated that one for as long as we’ve known what the NFL Draft is, and truthfully, what we’ve learned is both answers are correct. There’s really no right or wrong approach.

It appears the Eagles subscribe to the theory of going with the top-ranked player on their board more often than not though. Here’s why we say that, and we’ll just use the 2017 NFL Draft as a case study.

Philly probably needed a linebacker or a cornerback in Round 1 that year. They went with someone they had high marks on, an edge rusher named Derek Barnett. Philly passed on home-run options at positions of a more pressing need: cornerbacks Marlon Humphrey and Tre’Davious White and linebacker T. J. Watt.

Surely, they’d take a corner in Round 2, right? They did, but they went with Sidney Jones, someone destined for a redshirt year as a rookie because he just had just torn his Achilles about a month earlier at the Washington Huskies’ Pro Day. They missed on Juju Smith-Schuster and Cooper Kupp in the process.

If you want to hear something funny, mull this one over for a little while. Entering the 2022 selection meeting, we can argue that the Eagles’ largest needs lie at cornerback, safety, edge rusher, and wide receiver, yet there are recent drafts that suggest Philly might go with a defensive tackle with one of their first-round selections.

And you know what? We can see it. Don’t be shocked if the Eagles go with someone like Jordan Davis with wide receiver Chris Olave, cornerback Derek Stingley, edge rusher Jermaine Johnson, or linebacker Devin Lloyd on the board (or with all of them on the board). Defensive tackle isn’t one of the Eagles’ biggest areas of need, but taking one anyway falls right in line with what this team does more often than not.