The NFL Draft is still over a week away, but it is doubtful anything will occur on draft night that was as shocking as the Los Angeles Rams trading up to the first overall pick last Friday.
With the Rams moving from 15th to first overall, and the Titans moving back, here is a look at how the shake up will affect the Eagles and their different options while they wait to be on the clock at number eight.
Draft A Lineman
Until the Eagles traded up from 13, this seemed like the inevitable outcome. The team adding an offensive linemen to slide in at guard in the short term and replace Jason Peters in the long term seemed like the most logical solution. But, sitting with the with eighth overall pick, it will be interesting to see how the board falls.
Laremy Tunsil will be long gone by the time the Eagles name is called and Ronnie Stanley doesn't seem to be one of the eight best players in the draft. To reach for a need in the Top-10 would be a terrible waste of resources.
Speaking of resources, at this point, the Eagles already have a lot invested in their offensive line. In addition to Peters, the team already has handed Lane Johnson a lucrative, long-term deal, given a five-year, $40 million deal to Brandon Brooks and have Jason Kelce slated to make over $6 million for the next five years. That's three-fifths of the O-line locked up for the future.
The line struggled in 2015, but the future looks relatively bright. The Eagles would be wise to pass on the offensive linemen in the first round and pick up someone who can slide in at left guard in 2016. Double down with a developmental talent in the later rounds, and the team will be set for the rest of the decade.
Unless Tunsil inexplicably falls to them at eight, the Eagles should wait to address their O-line.
Draft A Skill Player
After the trade-up and the Rams-Titans trade, this option is starting to seem more and more likely. There are a number of players worthy of the eighth pick: running back Ezekiel Elliott, linebacker Myles Jack, cornerback Vernon Hargreaves, and defensive ends Joey Bosa and Deforest Buckner are all ranked in the Top-10 on most draft boards. With those five, cornerback Jalen Ramsey, Tunsil and quarterbacks Carson Wentz and Jared Goff, that makes nine top prospects, so at least one will be available for the Eagles at No. 8.
The team has been especially interested in Elliott as of late. Of all the prospects, Elliott may have the best shot of making an immediate impact on the Eagles, and if the team truly believes in Sam Bradford, it would make sense to give him a workhorse back to lean on.
Hargreaves would give the team a blue-chip talent in the secondary they are sorely missing and Buckner or Bosa would add a dangerous pass rusher to their rotation. Any of these four prospects would be a good use of resources now that it seems the top two QBs will go with the first two picks of the draft.
Draft A Quarterback
This scenario is what was most affected by the Rams trading for the No. 1 slot. The Eagles were rumored to be interested in trading up in order to draft Wentz or Goff, but with the Rams sitting at No. 1 and the Cleveland Browns at No. 2, it seems unlikely either QB makes it past either of the quarterback-needy teams.
If the Eagles want a QB, they will have to use a mid-round pick on a developmental talent such as Michigan State's Connor Cook or Mississippi State's Dak Prescott. Cook was one of the top-rated QBs of this class for most of the year before a shoulder injury derailed his season and limited him during the pre-draft process. Meanwhile, Prescott is a physically gifted QB, but needs some seasoning before he can succeed at the next level.
The wild card in all of this is Paxton Lynch, who has been inconsistent, but when he is good, he's as good as any QB in this class. The issue here is that taking him at eight would be a huge risk and be viewed as a reach until Lynch proves himself, which could be a few years from now. Would Doug Pederson and Howie Roseman open themselves up to that kind of criticism on their very first draft pick together?
I think the team will still try to acquire Goff or Wentz and hope that the Browns have a change of heart and let one of the QBs go in favor for a guy like Ramsey. But it's more likely the Eagles will leave the draft without one of the top QBs, and instead, will take someone who can help the team right away and later draft someone capable of sitting as the third quarterback on the roster while they learn the ropes of the NFL.
Tucker Bagley is a columnist for Eagledelphia. Follow him on Twitter @tbagley515.
