Eagles Make Most of Their Picks on Day 1
Call me crazy, but I’m going to declare this the best 1st day of the NFL Draft that the Eagles have had in 5 years. I strongly believe that the Eagles made great personnel decisions with their first 3 picks on Saturday. Sitting at the 14 spot, the Eagles decided against moving up in the draft to select a top 10 player, but a top 10 player fell into their laps.
The Eagles must have been very happy when Brodrick Bunkley was still available at number 14. Bunkley was one of the two elite defensive tackles in this draft along with Haloti Ngata. Once Sims was drafted by the Lions at number 9, I strongly felt that Bunkley would be the best fit for the Birds. But I thought that the Eagles would still possibly have to move up a few spots to grab him. Eventually the Eagles were on the clock and Bunkley was still on the draft board. I don’t think the Eagles could have imagined a better scenario. I wanted the Eagles to draft a linebacker myself but that was under the assumption that Bunkley would be gone in the top 10.
Bunkley is a force on the defensive line and will make this D-line extremely deep. They now have Kearse, new DE Darren Howard, last year’s first round pick DT Mike Patterson, Darwin Walker, Trent Cole, and maybe even Jerome McDougle. I know most Eagles fans are thinking how can you draft a DT 2 years in a row in the first round, but this really was a smart decision. A talent such as Bunkley can’t be passed up, and this pick will really improve the Eagles defense.
In the 2nd round, the Eagles decided to trade up out of their 45 spot to the number 39 which Tennessee had. At this point, another guy that the Eagles highly coveted, OT Winston Justice, was still available. The Eagles took Justice off the draft board and I think this will turn out to be one of the steals of the draft. Justice is a very good right tackle that could potentially replace Jon Runyan or Tra Thomas. The reason that a guy like Justice who was originally rated as a top 15-20 pick was that he has some “character” issues. We all know that T.O. had character issues and how that ended up, but I believe this will be a much different ending. I think Andy Reid will turn Justice into a great young man and an anchor on this offensive line.
In the 3rd round, the Birds took a DE from Cal-Poly by the name of Chris Gocong. I don’t know much about Gocong but this could turn out to be a solid pick as well. Gocong will most likely become a linebacker since he is a little undersized to be a DE in the NFL and the aforementioned depth on the D-line. Personally, I think the Eagles should have went elsewhere with this pick. I would have rather seen a the Eagles grab a LB or a WR at this spot. At this point, LBs still available included Anthony Schlegel and Jon Alston and WRs such as Maurice Stovall and Demetrius Williams. I don’t this pick will hurt the Eagles much especially if a WR like Stovall is still available when the Eagles select in the 4th round.
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Posted on April 29, 2006 by Kyle Garis | Filed Under Eagles, Philadelphia
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