We're just over two months removed from the Philadelphia Eagles destroying the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 59, but Howie Roseman found a way to twist the knife on Thursday at the NFL Draft.
Kansas City had a front row seat to just how devastating Philly's defense was, which makes it even funnier that the Chiefs might have helped it get even more dangerous. The Chiefs and Eagles flipped spots in the first round in a trade that cost Philly almost nothing and netted them one of the best linebackers in the draft.
A lot of folks thought Alabama's Jihaad Campbell wouldn't make it past the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at No. 19. He did, though, and tumbled all the way to the end of the first round where Roseman pounced. This continues a tremendous trend in which the Eagles somehow end up with top players on defense despite not being in a position where that should be possible.
We saw it with Jordan Davis, Jalen Carter, and Nolan Smith, as well as Nakobe Dean and Cooper DeJean, and now Campbell joins the list. Roseman has been able to cook up some incredible draft classes and the culmination of that was a Super Bowl victory this past Feburary -- something that feels more like the start of a run rather than a one-off stroke of luck.
Dean and DeJean were Day 2 picks that somehow fell to the Eagles, while the other guys were there for a variety of reasons from off-field concerns to injuries. Campbell falls under the latter category, as a shoulder issue caused his stock to drop and allowed him to fall right in the Eagles' lap.
Much like the other first-rounder Roseman has been able to snag, Campbell was the team's target all along. NFL Network's Ian Rapoport noted that the Eagles tried to trade up to No. 22 and swap picks with the Chargers to get Campbell, which makes the fact that he fell to them even sweeter.
A trade still needed to happen, but that could be the final masterstroke of this deal for Roseman. So much was made about the Bills trading the pick that became Xavier Worthy to the Chiefs last year, but now the clown shoe is on the other foot.
Philadelphia is once again ending the first night of the draft with a player they should have never been able to draft, and it won't be long before the rest of the league pays for it.
UPDATE
As the weekend continued, Roseman kept racking up wins. Philly's only Day 2 pick was bruising Texas safety Andrew Mukuba, but it was the masterclass that we saw put on during Saturday's portion of the draft that really stands out.
Here's what Roseman put together:
- Round 4, Pick 111: DT Ty Robinson, Nebraska
- Round 5, Pick 145: CB Mac McWilliams, Central Florida
- Round 5, Pick 161: LB Smael Mondon, Georgia
- Round 5, Pick 168: C/G Drew Kendall, Boston College
- Round 6, Pick 181: QB Kyle McCord, Syracuse
- Round 6, Pick 191: T Myles Hinton, Michigan
- Round 6, Pick 207: T Cameron Williams, Texas
- Round 6, Pick 209: OLB Antwaun Powell-Ryland, Virginia Tech
Stop it. That's unfair. The rest of the teams in the NFC have familes, Howie!
On top of all that, there were rumors that the Cleveland Browns traded one pick ahead of Philly in the fifth round to draft Shedeur Sanders because the belief was the Eagles might take him. That's the level of genius we're dealing with, and even if that Sanders rumor wasn't true, it shows just how rattled Roseman has the rest of the league.