Philadelphia Eagles seven-round 2020 NFL Mock Draft

The Philadelphia Eagles have 23 free agents going into 2020. In the latest mock draft, Philly prepares for the future and replaces underperforming veterans.

It’s been a year Philadelphia Eagles fans. What started as a season with so much hope and hype has turned into another disappointing year. A year of close losses, dropped game-winning passes, up and down performances on both sides of the ball and of course injuries. The injury bug started early in the pre-season with the Philadelphia Eagles and it just never stopped biting.

Going into Miami in Week 13, the Philadelphia Eagles have eight players placed on injured reserve (CBS Sports) and 9 players currently on the team’s injury report. Despite all this, the team is still in the race to win the NFC East. Even if the Philadelphia Eagles make the playoffs this year, 2019 has not gone according to plan.

Super Bowl 52 never felt further away than it did when the Eagles lost to the Patriots in week 11. 2017 was Carson Wentz’s coming out party to the world. The first year Wentz had competent help on both sides of the ball. The year he threw for 33 touchdowns in and was the MVP front-runner.

Buoyed by talented off-season acquisitions and a fourth-place schedule, Wentz led the team to an 11-2 start and seem poised to lead the team on a Super Bowl run. Who would have thought that when Wentz went down with a torn ACL/MCL, Nick Foles would lead the team to the Super Bowl and beat the greatest dynasty in NFL history? All that feels like ancient history now.

Now that Wentz is going to be paid like a franchise quarterback, the team must start to lean more heavily on the draft as a way to build the roster. The end of this season will see 23 free agents for the Philadelphia Eagles.

And even though General Manager Howie Roseman is a cap God and every year seems to find money buried in couch cushions, he’ll have to maneuver around Carson Wentz’s annual cap hit, which is estimated to be over $30 million dollars a year after 2020, according to Spotrac. Which is a steal really, when compared to what Dak Prescott and Patrick Mahomes are likely to fetch after their contract negotiations.

Still, the days of the Philadelphia Eagles being on the shortlist to pick up every elite free agent is likely over.

The 2020 NFL draft will be the first time since 2017 the Philadelphia Eagles will have more than five draft picks. The last two drafts the Eagles have had only five draft picks each year, preferring to build the team primarily through free-agency or trading draft picks for players. This has backfired in the last two seasons as these veterans have made up a lion’s share of the injured players on the roster.

If the team hopes to stay competitive going forward, it must start putting more emphasis on gaining and retaining draft picks. Roseman has been excellent at gaining compensatory draft picks over his almost 10 years of being the General Manager. But they won’t be enough to make up for the loss in free agency every year. The Philadelphia Eagles must adapt.

This mock draft will not be a fan wish list of players I hope the Philadelphia Eagles will draft. Rather I will break down Roseman’s draft history since becoming the General Manager in 2010, cross-reference them with positions likely to open up after the season to give you what I think will be the most probable choices in the upcoming draft.

Note: With a month left to play, I do not present this Philadelphia Eagles mock draft as Messianic truth to be inscribed on stone. These are just my educated guesses about which college players make the most sense. These selections are based on the performance and probable openings on the roster as of week 13. 

Also, these selections were aided by using The Draft Network’s 2020 Mock Draft board.