Courageous Reporting

We won't even begin to know how good this draft is until training camp -- and the true story won't be told until we see what the Eagles do with that #1 draft pick next season -- but I do respect the opinion of Eagles fans worried that the team didn't make enough of an immediate offensive impact with their draft choices.  Obviously, I don't agree, but we'll see who's right soon enough.

What I don't respect are local writers who play to the worst impulses of the crowd by saying things like this:

Fans are debating whether the Eagles avoid drafting in the first round because of economics or simple wrong-headedness.

In other words, are they too cheap to pay first-round money to a guy they don't really love?

Or do they really think the holdovers from an 8-8 team are so good they cannot be replaced?

Or, hey, third option, because they could get the same guys they wanted while still picking up extra selections.  Inane, false dichotomy there.

But the lavish price the Panthers paid to get the Eagles' No. 19 pick on Saturday provided the Birds with a fig leaf of cover.

Or, rather than being a "fig leaf," it's what actually happened.  It's not like Shawn Andrews was sitting at #19.  And as I said before, I simply don't understand the anger over picking up two extra draft picks and deferring your first-round choice for a year when the guy you would have drafted wouldn't have played for at least a year anyway.

How they're gonna spin yesterday's fourth-rounder, though, is beyond me.

To quote colleague Bob Brookover, the Birds "took a cornerback (Wisconsin's Jack Ikegwuonu) with legal problems and a knee injury that won't allow him to play this year."

Spin that one!

The guy has "first-round" talent and majorly screwed up the last year of his life.  Cornerbacks are hard to find and so, much like Buffalo drafted the injured WIllis McGahee a few years ago as a development prospect, the Eagles used one of their three fourth-round picks on this guy.  It may or may not work out, given that all picks after the first couple rounds are a crap shoot, but that's kind of what you can do when you make trades with Carolina that get you a ton of picks.

Wow, that sure was tough to "spin!"

And no, I'm not linking to this jerk.  Screw giving him any traffic.

Comments

[Gabe from BountyBowl]

Don McKee is a clown; it's as if he's just summarizing the most boneheaded and angry calls from the previous 48 hours on WIP.

Remember: this is how he makes his living (!).

[Eagle Scout]

Anyone hear the clown from my company - NJ.com - Mark Eckel this morning on WIP?

He slammed the Birds for not trading up to get Albert, but at the same time criticized them for lacking urgency.

So Eckel insinuates Albert would start next year? At what position? Too bad I am not permitted to slam this clown on NJ.com.

[johnnyshaka]

Now that things have settled down and I've had time to take everything in, I think I'm drinking your Kool-Aid now...I like this draft and what they did or didn't do.

Looking back at last year's first round receivers (there were 6 of them) only Johnson and Bowe outproduced Reggie Brown and it wasn't by all that much, either. So, considering that not one NFL team thought that a WR was worth a first round pick this year, versus six one year ago, tells me that Reggie Brown would still be better, this season, than any WR in this draft. That isn't an air-tight argument, but I do think it has merit and makes a little sense. I was very happy to see the Eagles not take a WR at 1.19.

How big is Steve Smith? How big is DJ? How good is Steve Smith? No, I'm not comparing the two, just yet, but I'm not going to dismiss him and call him a "gimmick" just yet. I like the pick especially where we ended up getting him and he is likely one of a few of this year's WRs that can contribute NOW...as a return man. I think he can help in the offense, eventually, but maybe not all that much this season. I mean, we can give him the go routes that Lewis usually runs from time to time and maybe he makes a play but at least teams have to back off a little bit and respect his speed. We'll see.

All in all, like you, I don't see any guys drafted in the last half of the first round that could displace any of our current starters. So, why spend first round money on a guy who is likely going to sit on the bench for a season or two? Maybe we could've upgraded our linebackers but our current squad is pretty green and unproven so why panic now when we haven't seen them play that much?

The argument about how teams like the Pats, who have been so good for so long, are drafting guys to start is silliness. First of all, have a look at the Pats offseason...they lost a certain CB and needed to fill that hole so they drafted a couple of CBs. Would you rather have our secondary or theirs? Their linebackers are older than dirt so they drafted a couple of those. They could have two rookies starting at LB depending on who retires/drops dead of natural causes. They had some glaring holes to fill and they did so in the draft. The holes we had to fill, IMHO, couldn't have been filled in this draft...with the exception of maybe FS. But with the guys we currently have in the secondary that hole isn't nearly as big as it could be had we not picked up Samuel.

Boy, sorry. This turned into a rather long winded, "I agree with you" comment.

[TekkaMaki]

Might be late to the game here, but looks like the mighty Peter King is with you on the Eagle's decisions (as am I, FWIW)

Nice work with he recaps and reviews.

[BrianS]

This is definitely a draft I like better with a day to think about it.

When they traded down #19, I was like "What the ****?...BOOOOO!"

I'm

[BrianS]

(Sorry, I acciently hit "post"

This is definitely a draft I like better with a day to think about it.

When they traded down #19, I was like "What the ****?...BOOOOO!"

I'm happy with getting Law and Jackson in the 2nd round...getting Jackson especially made up for it.

[bigern]

What I like is the 2 first rounders next year.We'll be able to trade up and get the next great thing or maybe trade one away this summer and get the stud receiver we all want.
(Bolden,Johnson,or Williams)I'm also glad we kept Lito he's great. Pay him some of that first round money we've been saving or ask him to play this year and release him next year. that would be more than fair.