A new draft focus on athleticism will make the Eagles exciting in 2020

For years, the Eagles spent draft capital on players who may not have been the most athletic but produced for their respective colleges. If you've read my work in the past, you know I love the Relative Athletic Scores system that Kent Lee Platte developed. I took some time to record the scores of every draft pick of the Eagles since 2010, when Howie Roseman became general manager. Folks, it isn't pretty. It's been widely viewed that Howie Roseman and whomever was helping him evaluate the draft talent in each respective year would prioritize "box score" production over overall athleticism. That hasn't fared well in terms of longevity on the team. I know, I know, the Eagles won the Super Bowl during the 2010s so who cares what the draft plan is, right? Wrong! Jeez. Looking at how deep each team is getting throughout the league, it's imperative that Howie starts getting these draft picks right and they last for 4-5 years at the minimum. From 2010-2017, only 13 of the team's 70 draft picks are still on the team. Of the remaining 57 players, only 13 are on an NFL team and four are free agents. So from the eight drafts, only 30 of the 70 are still in the NFL in some capacity. (Only two players prior to 2010 are still active: DeSean Jackson and LeSean McCoy) The 2017 Super Bowl team had 37 drafted players on their 53 man roster, however, it could be argued that only 17 players made a significant impact. From 2010-2017, the philosophy in the draft seemed as if it was almost solely based on college production.The information gathered from relative athletic scoring backs up that assumption. What am I looking at? A score of 8.0-10.0 on the relative athletic scoring system is deemed "elite". A score between 5.0-7.9 is "okay" and a score 4.9 or below is "poor". Green scores for explosion are categorized as "good", "great", and "elite". Yellow scores are categorized as "okay. Red is categorized as "poor". Here is the list of players drafted from 2010-2017 and how they fall in each category:

Elite/Green	18
Elite/Yellow	4
Elite/Red	1
Okay/Green	10
Okay/Yellow	10
Okay/Red	6
Poor/Green	1
Poor/Yellow	3
Poor/Red	12

From 2010-2017, the Eagles spent 18 picks on players who fell into the elite athleticism and green explosive category. However, as you can see above, their next highest was poor athleticism and red explosiveness. 23 picks in total were used on players with elite athleticism, 26 were on players with okay athleticism, and 16 were used on players with poor athleticism. Five players did not register a score due to no combine performance (Alex Henery, Stanley Havili, Brandon Boykin, JaCorey Shepard, and Mack Hollins). Eagles Hits Make no mistake about it, there have been some absolute hits in the drafts from 2010-2017 that haven't been scored as the most athletic and/or the most explosive. Brandon Graham scored elite athleticism for defensive end (was just "okay" for linebacker) and scored okay explosive grades. Fletcher Cox and Zach Ertz scored elite athleticism yet scored poor explosive grades. Vinny Curry also measured out okay in athleticism and poor in explosive. Yet those four players have played an extremely important part in the Eagles success over the last decade. On the flip side, the Eagles have drafted some highly athletic and explosive players that haven't done much. Eagles Misses The late Daniel Te'o Nesheim scored elite athleticism and explosive grades but lasted six games with the team. Other players who scored elite athleticism and "good", "great", or "elite" explosive grades from 2010-2017: Keenan ClaytonClay HarborJamar ChaneyCurtis MarshEarl WolffJoe KrugerBrian MihalikAlex McCalisterJoe Walker Results Have the "elite" players produced? Out of the 23 "elite" athletic players, only five are still with the team (Wentz, Cox, Graham, Johnson, Kelce). Four are on other teams (Hicks, Rowe, Walker, Allen), one is in the CFL (McCalister), five are free agents (Mihalik, Matthews, Kruger, King, Kendricks), and seven are out of the league (Wolff, Brown, Marsh, Chaney, Sapp, Harbor, Clayton). The final one that is not accounted for in that list is Te'o Nesheim who passed away in 2017. Earlier in this article, I mentioned that there are 13 players still on the team since 2010. With those five that were mentioned in the previous paragraph, that means eight players drafted that did not fall under the "elite" athleticism category. Those players are: Vinny CurryZach ErtzIsaac SeumaloJalen MillsDerek BarnettSidney JonesRasul DouglasNathan Gerry Drafting elite athletes hasn't produced the most players for the Eagles, but it could be argued that it has produced the most impactful (aside from Ertz). Did the Super Bowl signal a change in draft philosophy? The 2018-2020 draft seems to signify so. Check that part out on the next page. Photo by Zach Bolinger/Icon Sportswire A New Era of Eagles football? As stated on the previous page, the Eagles drafted 16 players that scored poorly athletically from 2010-2017. That's an average of two per draft. In the 2018-2020 drafts, the Eagles only selected one player with that designation: Matt Pryor. Out of the 20 draft picks in that time span, only one is no longer on the team (Clayton Thorson, sorry Liam). Thorson did not register a score due to not performing in any of the athletic events. He probably would've been the Eagles' second poorest athlete. Of the 19 remaining players, 11 scored elite athletic scores and green (good, great, or elite) explosive scores. Three players who scored okay athletically also scored green explosive grades (Reagor, Bradley, Watkins). One scored okay in both aspects (JJAW), and one scored okay athletically and red in explosive grades (Miller). Mailata and Wanogho did not register scores. Pryor rounds out the group with his poor scores. Here's how it looks:

Dallas Goedert	9.51				G
Avonte Maddox	8.86				Go
Josh Sweat	9.71				E
Matt Pryor	2.8				P
Jordan Mailata	N/A				N/A
Andre Dillard	9.8				G
Miles Sanders	9.49				G
JJ Arcega-Whiteside	6.16				O
Shareef Miller	6.18				P
Clayton Thorson	N/A				N/A
Jalen Reagor	6.05				E
Jalen Hurts	9.53				E
Davion Taylor	8.54				G
K'Von Wallace	9.42				E
Jack Driscoll	8.9				G
John Hightower	8.02				G
Shaun Bradley	7.74				Go
Quez Watkins	7.41				G
Prince Tega Wanogho	N/A				N/A
Casey Toohill	9.51				G

The "elite" athletes from 2018 and 2019 provided immediate results. The three from the 2020 draft (Hurts, Wallace, and Toohill) have been turning heads in training camp. With 14 of the 23 "elite" athletes drafted from 2010-2017 still in the league in some capacity, could Howie have looked at that to forecast future success? 2020 Vision See what I did there? Howie may not have done all of this monotonous work that I just did to write you a long article, but he could have looked to the contracts of his "elite" athletes and decided it's time to inject some young athletes into this team. With the Eagles being about a billion dollars over the salary cap in 2021, the Eagles will need productive players, a lot of them, on rookie contracts. Fletcher Cox, Carson Wentz, and Lane Johnson account for $73.6 million of the cap in 2021. Zach Ertz seems to be on the verge of a contract extension, or not depending on who you ask, so his $12 million hit may be a little less. Howie Roseman has some tough decisions coming with some high priced players, namely DeSean Jackson and Alshon Jeffery. But if his newfound love for elite athletes pays off, then the decisions will be easy. Maybe the Eagles should hire Kent Lee Platte to the scouting department. Photo by Zach Bolinger/Icon Sportswire