Eagles Thefts: Philly's Top 5 Draft-Day Steals
PHILADELPHIA – There are many ways to define a draft-day steal.
When looking at who would fit into that category for the Philadelphia Eagles, there were three rules:
First, a player has to have been drafted. That eliminates safety Reed Blankenship.
Second, a player has to be on the roster right now. That eliminates a slew of players, probably starting with Harold Carmichael, the popular receiver who went from a seventh-round pick to a recent inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
It also excludes former Eagles standouts such as Brian Westbrook (third round, 2002), Jeremiah Trotter (third round, 1998), Seth Joyner (eighth round, 1986), Clyde Simmons (ninth round, 1986), and Wilbert Montgomery (sixth round, 1977), among many others.
Finally, a player had to be drafted in the third round or later. That eliminates Jalen Hurts (second round, 2021), Landon Dickerson (second round, 2022), and first-rounders Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith from the 2023 class.
Obviously, Carter and Smith still must live up to their first-round status, but Carter at No. 9 and Smith at No. 30 feels like tremendous value.
Even as a second-round selection, there could be a case made for Dickerson, since he had torn his ACL late in his final season at Alabama, an injury that dropped him into the second round, where the Eagles took a chance on him. Dickerson has rewarded the Eagles by playing in 31 games since being picked, with 30 starts.
It should be noted that nobody from the Eagles’ class of 2019 remains on the roster and only one player remains on the roster from the 2017 class, and that is Derek Barnett, who is not a draft-day theft.
Here are the five draft-day steals that fit the three requirements:
5. LB Nakobe Dean, third round, 2022. Just how well Dean does at the pro level is still unknown, so this steal is more of a projection, but the linebacker from the University of Georgia was pegged as a first-round pick. He slid to the third after an unfounded injury issue injury arose that said he would require shoulder surgery. It was bogus.
4. DT Milton Williams, third round, 2021. The defensive tackle has been a steady contributor in his first two seasons. He will be asked to do more this year, and the 6-3, 290-pounder could be about to do even greater things in his third season.
3. DE Josh Sweat, fourth round, 2018. All the defensive end has done is get better each year. As much talk as there is about nobody knowing what Hurts’ ceiling could be, the same could be said for Sweat, who had 11 sacks last year and, after a rookie season in which his snaps were managed and played just nine games, should add greatly to his career total of 28.5 sacks, all of which were achieved in the previous four seasons combined.
2. LT Jordan Mailata, seventh round, 2018. The Eagles took a flyer on the 6-8, 380-pound offensive lineman who had never played organized football until he arrived as the 233rd overall pick. He has started 30 games the past two seasons and has settled in nicely at left tackle.
1. C Jason Kelce, sixth round, 2011. The hands-down winner of the biggest draft-day steal on the roster, Kelce has started 139 straight games at center and the now-35-year-old shows no signs of slowing down.
It’s amazing that he’s still around when you look at who was in his Eagles draft class: Danny Watkins, Jaiquawn Jarrett, Curtis Marsh, Casey Matthews, Alex Henery, Dion Lewis, Julian Vandervelde (all of whom were picked ahead of Kelce), and followed by Brian Rolle, Greg Lloyd, and Stanley Havili.
Ed Kracz covers the Philadelphia Eagles for SI's EaglesToday.
Please follow him and our Eagles coverage on Twitter at @kracze.
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