By Tucker Bagley, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 
As the NFL Draft begins on Thursday night, there is plenty of hype with it being held in Philadelphia.
Typically, we reserve the Eagles Armchair for postgame day-after analysis. But today, we're making an exception. Here is a special edition of Eagles Armchair ahead of the 2017 NFL Draft.
Going Deep
After 56 years, the NFL Draft has returned home.
In 1936, the NFL and its nine franchises met at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Philadelphia to conduct the inaugural NFL Draft in order to equalize strength among the teams. The Philadelphia Eagles picked first and selected the reigning Heisman Trophy-winner, Jay Berwanger, who never played a down of football in the NFL.
After that first year, the city of Philadelphia hosted the draft 13 more times at various venues around the city, including the Warwick Hotel, the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel and the Racquet Club of Philadelphia.
Thankfully, the next time Philadelphia hosted the draft in 1944, they had much better luck with their first selection. The Birds used the fifth-overall pick on a halfback from LSU who went on to make five All-Pro teams and the Hall of Fame, Steve Van Buren.
However, the Eagles next first-round pick from their home city turned out to be the best player in the history of the storied franchise: Chuck Bednarik.
After winning the 1948 NFL Championship, the Eagles were awarded the top draft selection in the following year's draft, thanks to the "lottery bonus pick" that was implemented two years prior. They picked Bednarik, a local product from the University of Pennsylvania who played 14 seasons and won a pair of NFL Championships.
Over time, Bednarik has become the standard against which all Eagles have been compared and his toughness and grit remain mythical to those who were able to watch him play during his prime.
Back-to-back Hall of Famers is certainly something to marvel at, but the Eagles luck quickly ran out.
Philadelphia was the host for each of the next 12 drafts, but those 12 first-round picks combined for just one Pro Bowl and the most recognizable name among those players, Bud Grant, made the Hall of Fame due to his exceptional coaching career. In fact, the last first-rounders, Art Baker and Ron Burton, never ever played for the Eagles.
And tonight, the football world will converge on the City of Brotherly Love once again. The make-shift theater isn't exactly a luxury hotel and the crowd may be a bit bigger than the drafts of the 1950s and '60s. The draft has certainly come a long way from hotel conference rooms, but the goal remains the same: the Eagles need to make sure they get a Van Buren or Bednarik, not a Baker or Burton.
Numbers Game
3: The Eagles have traded back in each of the last three drafts. With eight picks already in the fold, Howie Roseman doesn't exactly need to add more for 2017, but should he find a potential suitor, Roseman could trade back in an effort to add picks for the future, like he did in 2015 when he surrendered the Eagles' fourth-round pick for the Lions third-round selection in 2016. It's a virtual guarantee the Eagles will not stand pat, make their eight picks and go home. Movement will occur, and odds are, it will be backwards.
7: The Birds have made the 14th pick of the draft seven times, with limited success. In addition to Grant and Baker, they have picked fullback Chuck Newton (145 career rushing yards), linebacker Tim Rossovich (three career interceptions), quarterback John Reeves (17 touchdowns, 34 INTs), Bernard Williams (16 games started) and Brodrick Bunkley (8.5 career sacks).
Ouch.
1: Fletcher Cox is the only Pro Bowler the Eagles have drafted in the first round during the past decade. Hopefully Carson Wentz will buck that trend soon, but this is a telling sign of why the Eagles have struggled to put together decent teams in recent years. Not being able to hit on prospects with top-round selections is the quickest way for a GM to lose his job.
Quotables
"Miss Betty believes the Eagles are very interested—they were the only team to reach out to her personally."
-Robert Klemko on who is interested in Dalvin Cook, from his story on the Florida State running back.
Cook's name hasn't exactly been connected to the Eagles a lot in recent weeks, but maybe there is more interest than they're leading on.
The more I talk to people around the league, the less I know about how this 1st rd is going to shake out. And that starts at pick 1.
— Daniel Jeremiah (@MoveTheSticks) April 27, 2017
This is a common theme in every draft, but in a year with no top QB prospects, it seems like the draft could go a ton of ways, especially early on. No matter what, tonight should be one of the most exciting first rounds in a while.
Three-Step Drop
1. It's hard to look past tonight's pick, but I really think the Eagles could end up with a great player with their second-round pick. Despite the Birds' inability to draft in the first round, the team has a history of success drafting in the second round. In a draft where prospects' stock seems to be sliding up and down by the minute, it wouldn't be surprising if a top prospect slipped to the Eagles at 43.
2. Based on the talent the Eagles currently have on their roster, I think it would make the most sense to address the defense in the first round. Despite the offense having less talent, the defense is currently built on the backs of high-priced veterans. It needs an influx of young talent, stat. The offense has Wentz as their long-term cornerstone, the defense needs one of their own.
3. As cool as it is for the NFL Draft to be in our own city, I have to imagine the TV coverage will get very stale, very quickly. Just imagine how many Rocky, snowball and cheesesteak references will be made during these next three days. Hopefully Trey Wingo and company aren't too lazy with their coverage of the city, but ESPN's track record says otherwise.
