Even though the Philadelphia Eagles lost a decent amount of starters in free agency, they’re still a really well put-together team. You can’t say the same thing about the other teams in the NFC East.
The Commanders are getting old (and signing old guys), so they have a few positions where they need help, but they also just need more youth in general. The Cowboys are broken and have holes all over their roster. And the Giants are technically a professional football team, but they don’t have the horses to compete at almost every position.
It would've been cool if the Giants won one more game
Not every draft class is perfect for every team. Unfortunately, when you mix the strengths of this draft class with where the teams in the NFC East are picking, we might run into a little bit of a problem.
There’s a decent chance the Eagles' divisional rivals are going to have the opportunity to make the right picks to fill their roster holes with the right players. Will they do that? Who knows? That’s on them.
New York Giants:
The Giants currently have eight draft picks this year. No. 3 (first round), 34 (second round), 65, 99 (both in third round), 105 (fourth round), 154 (fifth round), 219, and 246 (both in seventh round).
The most glaring issue on the Giants roster was their lack of a quarterback, duh. So far this offseason, they have signed Jameis Winston and Russell Wilson. Before that happened, it seemed like it was a given that they were going to draft the best quarterback available.
But now that they have a bridge quarterback (or two), they might not. They also have holes on the offensive and defensive lines. With the third pick in the draft, the Giants are going to have the opportunity to draft either quarterback Shadeur Sanders, edge rusher Abdul Carter, or wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter.
Carter is probably the scariest option for both him and us. He grew up an Eagles fan and went to the Super Bowl to be an Eagles fan for one final time. You have to assume he probably wouldn’t want to play against the Eagles twice every year for his career. We also don’t want to play against him twice a year.
Yeah, Lane Johnson shuts down every single edge rusher that lines up across from him, but Abdul Carter is still going to be playing after Lane Johnson retires. Carter is a scary dude.
The Giants’ front office might be incompetent, but they’re not so incompetent that they’ll pass over one of this draft’s elite talents with the third pick overall. They’ll have the opportunity to grab an offensive lineman in later rounds. That doesn’t necessarily mean they will, and if they do draft big guys, they probably won’t work out… because it’s the Giants.
Dallas Cowboys:
The Cowboys currently have 10 picks in the draft: No. 12 (first round), 44 (second round), 76 (third round), 149, 174 (both fifth round), 204, 211 (both sixth round), 217, 239, and 247 (all in seventh round).
The Cowboys need wide receivers, cornerbacks, and the most Cowboys need of all-time: a running back.
They obviously want Ashton Jeanty, the running back from Boise State. It makes sense because he rocks, and having to see him twice a year for the next four or five years would be a big-time bummer. However, it’d be good for the Eagles long term if the Cowboys do get him because the smart people are thinking he won’t be there at the 12th pick.
A bunch of the reputable mock draft people are thinking Jeanty will go to the Raiders with the sixth overall pick. If that’s the case, the Cowboys are going to have to trade up if they want that kind of talent, and going from the twelfth pick to a top-five pick is a very pricey move.
Luckily, Jerry Jones doesn’t care about money or the value of anything, really. As a matter of fact, you could convince me that Ol’ Jerr actually likes it when something is more expensive because he’s a gaudy lunatic of a guy. It’d make a lot of sense if they sold the farm to get their guy; it’d be a boneheaded move, but it’d make sense.
If they don’t go that route, they’ll have an opportunity to grab Will Johnson, the big cornerback from Michigan. They’d probably wait until the second or third round to try to get a wide receiver. They’ll probably draft an offensive lineman or two since future Hall-of-Famer Zack Martin retired in February, but no one they draft is going to live up to what Martin gave them.
Washington Commanders:
The Commanders currently have five picks in the draft: No. 29 (first round), 61 (second round), 128 (fourth round), 205 (sixth round), and 245 (seventh round).
The Commanders' biggest needs in the draft are at cornerback, edge rusher, and probably running back.
Right now, they have Brian Robinson and Austin Ekeler as their one-two punch at running back. The problem is that Ekeler is about to turn 30, and we’ve in the past couple of seasons, he’s missed time from injuries. Granted, the majority of the time he missed in 2024 was from a concussion, but still… you’d probably rather not try to have to rely on a 30-year-old running back who is clearly past his prime.
We know they’re looking for help at edge rusher for two reasons: everyone always is, and more importantly, they were trying to get a few guys in free agency.
If they go after an edge rusher early in the draft, it’d be a bummer because it wouldn’t be crazy if the Eagles also tried to go after an edge rusher. We always see the videos of the front office guys celebrating in the draft room when the team ahead of them doesn’t pick their guy.
What we don’t see is the videos of those guys dog-cussing when their guy gets drafted the pick or a handful of picks before them. I think there’s a chance that’s the situation that happens here.
As far as a cornerback goes: the Commanders have had mixed success drafting those recently, but for good reason. In 2023, they picked Emmanuel Forbes Jr. with the 16th pick overall. They thought the six-foot-tall and 180-pound wide receiver was going to be able to keep up with A.J. Brown. He didn’t, like, even a little bit. The Commanders waived him about halfway through the 2024 season.
Then, in 2024, they drafted Mike Sainristil in the second round. He’s a little bit shorter than Forbes, but roughly the same size. The biggest difference between the two is that Sainristil isn’t terrible.
It would make sense if they went back to the cornerback well in 2025. I don’t imagine that they would spend a premium pick again, but they’ll probably try to find someone who could play opposite Marshon Lattimore (who they traded for at the deadline) or fill in for him when he's inevitably injured.
Philadelphia Eagles:
The Eagles are in the weirdest position of any team in the NFC East: they have the 32nd pick, they’re probably going to try to draft the left tackle of the future at some point, and their roster holes are probably the least predominant.
The Eagles currently have eight picks in the draft: No. 32 (first round), 64 (second round), 96 (third round), 134 (fourth round), 161, 164, 165, and 168 (all in the fifth round). That means Howie Roseman doesn’t have any picks in the sixth or seventh round. I would take out a second mortgage on my house and bet that changes at some point.
Right now, the Eagles' biggest draft needs are at edge rusher, defensive tackle, linebacker, safety, and potentially tight end. Again, they also need to grab Lane Johnson’s replacement at some point, too.
I’d like it if the Eagles traded back from the first round and stocked up on future picks, but there’s no telling what Howie Roseman will do. If he trades up, I hope that it’d be for Malachai Starks, the safety out of Georgia. We know the Eagles have an addiction to defensive players from Georgia, and Starks would fill the biggest immediate need.
If he stays at 32 and grabs the best player, it’ll be one of those things where people say, ‘How did the NFL let X player fall to the Eagles’ and then Micah Parsons will go on a live stream and possibly literally cry about how the Eagles' defense is too good.
The biggest question mark in the draft is based on what happens with Dallas Goedert. If the Eagles trade him, then they’ll need to prioritize a tight end in the draft. Luckily, they’re drafting at a spot where there will be a good one that could fall to them at either the end of the first or second round.
All in all, the Eagles' needs are significantly less urgent than all of the other teams in the NFC East. The Cowboys are going to have to move mountains to get the guy that has Jerry Jones’ mouth watering. The Commanders need to get younger players everywhere, but they don’t have nearly enough draft picks to do so. And the Giants have a chance to get a single game-changing player, but they need four or five of them to become remotely close to being relevant again.