The NFL draft is less than a week away, and the Philadelphia Eagles have some roster holes that they need to fill. Luckily, there are a handful of draft prospects who could not only fill those spots perfectly, but also play the same way that we’re used to seeing.
Not only are these prospects thought of super highly, but they’re being compared to the players whose spots they are going to fill. That’s awesome because that means the offense and defense wouldn’t necessarily have to change a whole lot for these guys to hit their stride.
Jeanty and Barkley? Taylor and Ertz and Goedert?
This week, Ashton Jeanty, the certified monster and projected first-round draft pick, wrote an article for The Players' Tribune. It was a letter to NFL General Managers where he loosely compared himself to Saquon Barkley.
He wrote: “Most people, they watched the Eagles win the Super Bowl a couple of months ago, they watched Saquon run through everyone in the playoffs, and they thought to themselves, This is amazing. I watched it and I thought something different. I thought, That can be me… I’ve taken the long way. I’m done with that way. If you pick me, it’s simple: I’m coming to your franchise to do what Saquon and the Eagles just did. I’m coming to win, big, soon. It’s TACKLE football … you know what I’m saying? I’d draft the guy they can’t tackle.”
Jeanty looks like he’s going to be really good, and if he has the ability to make guys in the NFL miss like Saquon Barkley does, then he’ll have a long career. It just seems a little… audacious… to compare yourself to the best running back in the NFL.
But he’s on the right track with what he’s doing. Player comps make draft prospects easier to understand. That’s even easier when they’re compared to players that we watch every week. These are three draft prospects who have been compared to some guys who are, or have been, Eagles.
Walter Nolen - Milton Williams
There are a whole lot of similarities between Walter Nolen (Defensive Tackle, Mississippi) and Milton Williams. Not only is there just a one-inch and four-pound difference between the two, but they also have a similar type of play style and a similar upside. Hell, Next Gen Stats gave Nolen a total draft prospect score of 80 and Williams a score of 79.
There have been a decent number of smart draft people who are thinking Nolen could fall to late in the first round of the draft, and if that’s the case, the Eagles could move up to grab him (or see if he makes it past Kansas City’s 31st pick).
PFF’s Trevor Sikkema connected Nolen and Williams. He said, “...The former five-star recruit Nolen really came into his own this past season due to unique explosiveness and strength, resulting in an elite run-defense grade and much-improved pass-rush productivity. Williams tested like an elite athlete when he was coming out of Louisiana Tech in 2021. Similarly, Nolen could turn some heads with how well he moves at his size.”
It’d be pretty sick if the Eagles swapped Milton Williams for a Milton Williams-type player in the draft. It’s tough to complain about that.
Mason Taylor - Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert
The Eagles have a type when it comes to drafting their franchise tight ends: Huge dudes who can catch. NFL.com’s draft profiles for Mason Taylor, Zach Ertz, and Dallas Goedert all describe them as fast guys with sneaky athleticism, the ability to track the ball, get open in space, and make plays over linebackers.
CBS Sports’ Josh Edwards points out that, “They have prototypical size, fluid movement and a well-rounded skill set. Zach Ertz was drafted atop the second round and has had a long, productive career.”
Sure enough, he’s right: they’re all also six feet and five inches tall, 250ish pounds, and all were/are projected to go in the second round of the draft. This is all setting up for Howie Roseman to grab Taylor in the second round, and he’ll be with the Eagles for the next eight years. In that time, he’ll either move into a house with a defensive back that gets drafted with him or marry a professional soccer player.
Jalen Milroe - Jalen Hurts
It’d be easy to just say they’re two quarterbacks named Jalen who both played quarterback at Alabama, but at CBS Sports’ Chris Trepasso points out, “…coming out of college, Hurts was an ascending pocket passer with a good, not great arm who repeatedly made hay as a runner. That's exactly the type of quarterback a team will be drafting with Milroe.”
It’s actually a little bit more than that: Hurts is six feet and one inch tall, and Milroe is six feet and two inches tall. In their first season starting at Alabama, Hurts threw for 2,780 yards, 23 touchdowns, and nine interceptions, while Milroe threw for 2,834 yards, 23 touchdowns, and six interceptions.
Next Gen Stats gave them both a 6.14 grade, which means “Good backup with the potential to develop into starter.”
We knew that Hurts had holes in his game, and they showed up in his first two years in the NFL — it’s a lot of what people are saying about Milroe. It seems super unlikely that both guys will develop the same way in the NFL, but hey… it could happen.