Plan A, Plan B, Plan C

A lot of questions are floating around the Eagles' #19 pick right now.  Will they trade up or down?  Will they look for immediate impact or continue building for the future?  Is the priority an offensive playmaker, defensive help or just another linemen?

However, the most interesting thing about all this speculation swirling around the Eagles' first draft pick this weekend is that it entirely misses the point.

The Eagles aren't trying to figure out which player to select with their first-round pick -- they're trying to figure out how to entice some team to trade them the established, veteran wide receiver who could take this offense from the level of pretty dang good all the way up to pretty dang unstoppable.

This team always has a Plan A for the draft.  Some years, it's pretty easy to figure out what it is ahead of time.  Drafting Jerome McDougle as a replacement for Hugh Douglas was not unexpected.  In 2006, most people were convinced the Eagles had settled on one of three players likely to be available with the team's #14 selection:  defensive tackles Haloti Ngata and Brodrick Bunkley or offensive tackle Winston Justice.  Ngata was gone by the time the Eagles were on the clock, so the team took Bunkley instead and then, when Justice slid all the way out of the first round, the Eagles traded up in the second and gleefully selected a guy they clearly thought had first-round talent.

In other years, things aren't so clear.  No one had a great feel for what the Eagles were planning next year, other than a vague belief that defensive help was probably coming.  Then the team shocked everyone by trading out of the first round and selecting its quarterback of the next 10 years in Kevin Kolb.  No one saw it coming, but it was clearly the Eagles' plan all along. 

Likewise, I'm having trouble remembering that far back, but I don't think many people were talking about Shawn Andrews before the Eagles packaged their first and second-round picks to hop up and draft him in 2004.

This year's clear Plan A rhymes with Schmad Rohnson, Koy Filliams or, um, Anquan Boldin, I guess.  Heck, maybe there's even another guy we can add to that list.  But that's the priority here.  The moves made so far, the texture of the team right now and the looming close of the McNabb / Westbrook window means Andy Reid is thinking about today, not tomorrow.

The only way the Eagles are spending that #19 pick this year is if somehow they can't pull off a trade for one of the big guns (or at least they get outbid).

Now, of course, since this is the Eagles, we know they'll have about 47 different contingency plans in case their preferred course of action doesn't work out.  That's where we get to Plan B, which could also be interesting, based on those trade value charts I worked up yesterday.  The Eagles could legitimately have a top ten stud in mind in this draft and with Lito Sheppard on hand, they might be able to go get him. 

The real question is if that kind of franchise-changer exists.  Taking a look at the latest mock draft of SI's Don Banks, how many of these top ten eleven guys are really a fit:

1. Vernon Gholston -- DE/LB -- Definitely a fit but out of reach.
2. Jake Long -- OT -- Already signed by Miami.
3. Glenn Dorsey -- DT -- Always room for a guy like this, but with Patterson and Bunkley in place do the Eagles spend this kind of money on another DT?  Also most likely out of reach.
4. Darren McFadden -- RB -- Absolutely a fit and worth going after if the draft shakes out a little differently than people expect and he's available in a trade with the Jets at #6.
5. Branden Albert -- OL -- Definitely a fit for this team's philosophy.  Interesting to see if he actually can make it as a tackle though.
6. Chris Long -- DE -- Does he have the upside you're looking for in a top six pick?  Maybe not, but by all accounts the guy's a relentless Trent Cole clone.  Fastballs, my friends, fastballs.
7. Sedrick Ellis -- DT -- No, not another DT.
8. Matt Ryan -- QB -- Nope.
9. Keith Rivers -- LB -- Uh-uh.
10. Leodis McElvin -- CB -- That's asking a lot to give up a Pro Bowl cornerback AND a first-round pick for just another cornerback.
11. Devin Thomas -- WR -- Maybe.

There's a lot of talent here, no question, but how many of these guys really get you excited that the Eagles gave up Lito Sheppard to go get him?  Maybe McFadden, Long and Albert?  But that could be Plan B.

And then, of course, there's Plan C.  Which involves just sitting at #19, maybe moving up one or two slots or down one or two slots for value purposes and selecting the best player then available.

If Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie is really available at #19, I might even be able to look past my crush on Felix Jones.

Comments

[Bigern]

Why would Albert be a tackle? Andy said Andrews was the best tackle coming out of college. Move him to tackle and slot Albert in at guard where he can continue to dominate.

[Me]

Sloppy writing on my part. Everything I've read has said that most teams are projecting him at tackle and it will be interesting to see if he fits there.

I could definitely see him getting on the field right away at guard for the Eagles.

[Dave B from OC]

Do you really think the eagles plan all along was to trade down and take Kolb? More likely, it was to draft a guy like Brandon Merriweather or Reggie Nelson, but those guys were gone. Good thoughts, though. It is starting to appear that the birds are going to have to trade up to get one of those OLs.

[Me]

Absolutely. They wanted everyone to think they were going safety, but Kolb was the guy all along.

I would go so far as to suggest that the groundwork for the Kolb selection was being laid by the Eagles well before McNabb got hurt (again) in 2006.