Did the Eagles address their biggest needs in the draft? Advanced NFL Stats put up charts prior to the draft that ranked every NFL team by 2010 positional EPA (Expected Points Added).
On offense: QB #8, RB #6, TE #19, WR #3, OL #24. That lines right up with the Eagles drafting both early and often for the interior offensive line. Otherwise they mostly ignored the offense.
On defense: DE #3, DT #16, LB #31, S #9, CB #17. This might be too similar to yesterday’s post about draft value, but after last year’s debacle maybe the Eagles should have drafted one or more NFL-ready linebackers, rather than continue to stock the cupboard with late-round depth picks.
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While we’re on the subject, I didn’t do quite so poorly in my draft predictions this year:
- The Eagles will not take Jimmy Smith. Check.
- But the Eagles will take a top cornerback in the top few rounds. 3rd round counts, right?
- The Eagles won’t pick at 23rd overall. Oops.
- At least two more linebackers. Howie rewarded me with three.
- Less than 10 rookies. Didn’t think there would be space for another 11 guys.
- No quarterback. Yup.
- Correll Buckhalter 2.0. That’s the optimistic outcome for Dion Lewis.
- Ignoring the defensive line? Thank you, thank you. I’ll be here all week.