Eagles "Will Never Draft a Linebacker in the First Round"

The NFL Network's lead draft analyst, and former Eagles employee, Daniel Jeremiah said it's up to GM Howie Roseman to prove him wrong, so here is a closer look at the position

It will be either an offensive or defensive lineman, or one of each, Daniel Jeremiah said when asked about the Eagles and their first-round possibilities in the 2022 NFL Draft.

“When you study (Eagles GM) Howie (Roseman) and how he operates and how that personnel department operates, you know there's going to be at least one, if not two bigs if they keep all three of those picks,” said Jeremiah.

What it won’t is a linebacker, the NFL Network draft analyst said during a Zoom call to preview next week’s NFL Scouting Combine that ran nearly two hours long on Friday afternoon

“The Philadelphia Eagles will never draft a linebacker in the first round because every year we talk about it, every year we talk about do we mock draft this guy here or there, and they're not doing it,” Jeremiah said when asked by SI.com Eagle Maven if the Eagles could make a surprise pick since they have the luxury of having three first-round selections on April 28. 

“They never do it. It's up to Howie to prove us wrong.”

Jeremiah led into that statement by using former Giants GM Dave Gettleman as an example.

“I said last year in my absolute statement that the Giants would never trade back because Dave Gettleman has never done it, he'll never do it, I'm going to stop talking about it because it will never happen, and lo and behold it happened,” said the draft analyst, who used to work in the scouting department of the Eagles with Roseman as his boss. “I will say this year I have changed now to my absolute statement (about the Eagles not drafting a linebacker in the first round).”

My first mock draft had the Eagles taking Utah’s Devin Lloyd with the second of their first-round picks, No. 16. They also own the 15th and 19th selections.

Utah's D / USA Today

He and Georgia’s Nakobe Dean are projected to be the two best linebackers in the draft.

“In terms of the do-everything guys off the ball, on the edge, Devin Lloyd is my first choice,” Jeremiah said. “He's explosive. He's not going to run as fast as Micah (Parsons) did, but he's got length (6-3, 235), he's got instincts, he's outstanding in pass coverage. Like if you watch the Stanford game, he's got a pick six in that game that's pretty cool…he's somebody that can do a little bit of (cover and rush).”

RELATED: Eagles-Only Mock Draft 1.0 Goes Heavy on Defense - Sports ...

As for Dean, Jeremiah compared him to former Jets and Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma, who made three Pro Bowls in 10 very strong NFL seasons.

Vilma was 6-1, 230. Dean is 6-0, 225.

“I remember Vilma when he first came into the league and I remember during the scouting process and something that people had concerns about size or this, that or the other and the guy was just dripping with instincts,” said Jeremiah. “Everything was so natural to him. He saw things and was two steps ahead of everybody on the field. That's who Nakobe dean reminds me of. 

"When you talk about the center of your defense and having that intelligence, the toughness, the leadership, he's got all that stuff in spades. I think he's outstanding. He can cover. You see him mirror backs. He's a real crafty blitzer.

“In my notes, I wrote this guy does everything fast. There's nothing he does that isn't fast. He's probably the greatest disparity in terms of how I have a guy graded and where I have him going because I can't get a feel for where he's going to go in the first round.

“He's a top-10 player for me, but I know in talking to a lot of teams, teams are obsessed with trying to find the longer, rangier, off-the-ball linebackers. They're looking for Darius Leonard, they're looking for Fred Warner, and I think some of that kind of dings Nakobe because he doesn't have that size and length. I'm curious to see where he goes, but I'll bet on him.”

There are linebackers that could be had on Day 2, the likes of Chad Muma from Wyoming and maybe even Georgia’s Quay Walker and Penn State’s Jesse Luketa.

“He's just a real versatile player,” said Jeremiah about Luketa. “He can do more than one thing, so his ability to play off the ball, his ability to rush off the edge.

“I love the fact that the guy just plays with fantastic energy. He just is always bouncing around. He's got a lot of juice. He's got a lot of life. He's got really, really violent hands when he takes on blocks. 

"Some of the change-of-direction stuff and some of the stiffness you're just going to have to live with. But I would say Luketa is probably a third-round type guy, somewhere probably in that range.”

That’s the target range for the Eagles, unless Roseman shocks the NFL world, and Jeremiah, by dipping into the linebacker pool in the first round.

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation EaglesToday and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglestoday.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.