After a rough 41-21 Monday night loss to the Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles fans are already looking forward to April’s draft, so here’s a full mock draft.
The Philadelphia Eagles have had a bit of an up and down season thus far. They kicked off the season with a dominant 32-6 victory over the Falcons and have followed it up with back-to-back losses against the 49ers and Cowboys.
Probably the biggest storyline for the Philadelphia Eagles coming into the season was is Jalen Hurts their future at quarterback? So far, even though the Eagles sit at 1-2, Hurts has looked pretty good as he’s completed 66% of his passes for 780 yards through the air and has added 179 yards on the ground.
He currently grades as the 10th best quarterback on PFF, which is obviously pretty good, especially for someone who is only in their second season. Now, this is just through three games, so he’ll have to sustain this to prove himself, but thus far it’s looking pretty encouraging that he is the guy they can build around at quarterback.
Philadelphia Eagles 2022 mock draft
With that being said the Philadelphia Eagles can focus in the 2022 NFL Draft on building their roster around Hurts and they have the picks to add a lot of talent to this roster as they will have at least one additional first-rounder, potentially even two.
Last year, following the Dolphins trade back with the 49ers they traded back from 12th to 6th with the Eagles and in doing so they gave up their first-round pick in this year’s draft. This was an excellent move for the Eagles as they were still able to get one of the draft’s top three receivers in Devonta Smith and they get an extra first-rounder in this year’s draft.
The other potential first-rounder for the Eagles is via the Colts. The pick can be either a first-round pick or a second-round pick, if Carson Wentz plays at least 75% of the Colts offensive snaps or if he plays 70% and the Colts make the playoffs it’ll be a first-rounder, if not it’ll be a second-rounder.
A quick note to address about this pick is if the Colts continue to lose and this looks like it’s going to be a high pick, they will likely shut Wentz down in order to retain it. However, Wentz has played nearly all of the Colts’ offensive snaps, therefore if the season ended today the pick would be conveyed, so I am writing this mock draft under that context.
After signing Jordan Mailata to a four-year extension worth $64 million earlier this month and with Lane Johnson still under contract until 2026, offensive tackle isn’t exactly a dire need for the Eagles. However, with Evan Neal available, you simply can’t pass up the chance to add someone with legitimate all-pro type of potential.
Neal has massive size at 6-foot-7, 350 pounds, and possesses the outstanding athletic ability and movement skills. Just check out this video of him doing a box jump, there simply aren’t many guys of his size that are capable of doing that.
Safety is another position that the Eagles don’t necessarily have a dire need at but with Anthony Harris set to be a free agent, it’s enough of a need to warrant taking a safety of Kyle Hamilton’s caliber.
Kyle Hamilton is someone who every defensive coordinator would love to have. He’s listed as a safety, but takes a lot of snaps from slot corner and can also line up in the box, in addition, he can track down ball carriers in the backfield and get his hands on passes in the secondary.
Hamilton has the physical traits with good speed, height, and length, but what separates him from most safeties are his instincts, he simply just has a nose for the football that most players don’t have.
Those impressive instincts have been on display this season as he’s recorded three interceptions through just four games.
The Philadelphia Eagles have used first-round picks on receivers in each of the last two drafts with DeVonta Smith in this year’s draft and Jalen Reagor in the 2020 draft, however, you can never have enough pass-catchers in the NFL.
Garrett Wilson projects as a very complete, dependable receiver at the next level. He is an excellent, very smooth route runner, who can separate at all levels of the field. He also has had success lining up as a slot receiver and out wide, so I could see him being the primary slot receiver for the Eagles with Smith and Reagor playing on the outside.
Wilson has been quite good for the Buckeyes thus far averaging nearly 100 yards per game and I expect his numbers at the end of the season to be very impressive.
With Darius Slay, Steven Nelson, and Avonte Maddox the Eagles currently have a solid trio of corners. However, Nelson and Maddox are both free agents after this season and Darius Slay will be 31 in January, so corner will be an offseason priority for them.
There are plenty of good cornerback options in the first round, so it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if they used one of their first-rounders on a corner, but in this scenario, they look to the second round to add one.
Derion Kendrick isn’t a perfect prospect by any means, but he does check a lot of the boxes that you want to see in cornerback prospects. He is a smooth mover, he’s good technically, and he’s got a lot of experience playing high-level college football as he started two years for Clemson before transferring to Georgia, where he is now also starting for the Bulldogs.
Arguably the biggest need for the Philadelphia Eagles heading into the offseason is linebacker as they are already pretty weak at linebacker and have a lot of free agents. With the Eagles’ third-round pick here they select yet another Clemson transfer.
At Clemson last season, Mike Jones Jr. was a pretty versatile defender as he lined up at defensive end, in the box, and in the slot and he was impressive in coverage recording two interceptions.
However, his desire to play more of an inside linebacker role caused him to make a decision to transfer to LSU. Ultimately, how he plays this season will decide what type of role he’ll play in the NFL, but he did show enough ability at Clemson to warrant a mid-round draft pick.
Jermaine Johnson II has solid tools as a pass rusher as he has good size (6-foot-5, 262 pounds), length, and solid athleticism. Johnson II spent two seasons playing for Independence Community College, then two seasons playing for Georgia, before transferring to Florida State for this season.
At Florida State, he has been a bright spot on a team that has struggled this season, as he’s recorded seven sacks in just four games.
Ben Brown is someone who provides value as a late-round pick in terms of versatility, as well as experience playing in a very competitive conference. He’s currently in his fourth year of starting, he is playing right guard this year, but he also has experience playing center as well.
This year he is a part of college football’s most dominant offense that has put up an FBS leading 635.3 yards and 52.7 points per game.
As I mentioned earlier, linebacker is probably going to be the biggest need for the Philadelphia Eagles heading into the offseason. Normally with late-round picks, you aren’t going to find players that can make an instant impact, however, I think Micah McFadden could be ready to play some snaps in the NFL out the gate.
Over his time at Indiana McFadden has proven that he can rush the passer really well. He may not be ready to play all three downs, as he isn’t great as a run defender, but he can be valuable in pass defense, as he can rush the passer very well and he is capable in coverage as he’s picked off four passes in his career so far with the Hoosiers.
Minnesota’s Chris Autman-Bell is a bit of a unique prospect as he’s built like a running back (6-foot-1, 215 pounds) playing wide receiver for the Golden Gophers. The biggest thing that Autman-Bell brings to the table is contested catch ability, he isn’t an elite separator but he makes up for that by being able to come down with 50-50 balls.
This is a big year for him as he should get a lot more targets with last year’s first-rounder Rashod Bateman off to the NFL. Unfortunately, he’s missed some early season action here as he missed the first two games with an ankle injury before re-injuring his ankle on the first play of Minnesota’s fourth game against Bowling Green.