What the draft experts say about the Eagles' draft

If you’ve done a fantasy draft, then you’ve looked at the stupid grade that whatever site you’re using gives you. At the end of the day, it means nothing, but if it gives you an ‘A’, then you get to call everyone else stupid because they didn’t see the board the same way you did. If it gives you anything lower than that, then you get to say, "This thing is stupid, I’m smart, I got the right guys at the right time."

It’s almost the same thing with the actual NFL Draft. Sure, some things are easy to grade (the Falcons traded a future first for the 26th overall pick, for instance), but for the most part, we won’t know if the draft was any good until about three years from now. 

That being said, seeing what draft experts said about what the Philadelphia Eagles did in the draft scratches a weird itch. So I went out and found a bunch of these experts' grades on the Eagles' 2025 draft. 

Pretend grades for a real draft

The complete idea of giving draft grades is incredibly flawed. It’s just draft experts saying that teams either did or didn’t do what they thought was right based on projections that they made. It’s delightfully flawed logic, and an entire industry has been built on it. 

Let’s start with ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr., who is coming off an all-time terrible performance behind the desk during the draft. The dude’s mind was twisted into a pretzel and smashed by a steamroller while he was trying to say how disappointed he was with the entire NFL’s treatment of Sheduer Sanders. 

That’s top-notch television right there. Unbelievable stuff from the pumpkin pie man. The dude is a lunatic.

Mel Kiper Jr., ESPN: A-

If Mel really wanted to go with the bit, he would rank every team that didn’t draft Shadeur Sanders with an F and give the Browns an A+++ with a smiley face sticker. That’s really the only way he could get back into the public’s good graces at this point. Unfortunately, he didn’t. He gave the Eagles an A-.

Most of what he says is based on the value that the Eagles got with their first and second-round picks — Jihaad Campbell and Andrew Mukuba. He does mention the special teams value that Smael Mondon Jr. (fifth-round, linebacker) adds, which is nice. 

It seems like the biggest reason for his grade is the Eagles drafting Cameron Williams, the offensive tackle from Texas, in the sixth round. Kiper says, “On Day 3, offensive tackle Cameron Williams could be a steal — if Philly can help him put all of his talent together. He started just one college season. I had him No. 125 on my Big Board.”

Going into the draft, I saw a bunch of people giving Cameron Williams a second or third-round draft grade, and the fact that the Eagles were able to get a potential Lane Johnson replacement waaaay late in the draft is pretty cool. 

Warren Sharp, Sharp Football Analysis: B

Warren Sharp is one of the few people who didn’t give the Eagles an A grade and gave a good reasoning behind it, which is respectable. If you feel a certain way deep down in your heart, stick to that even though everyone thinks differently. Very zen.

In his analysis of the Eagles draft, he doesn’t say anything glaringly bad or even borderline critical. He wrote, ”This draft class was mostly about adding depth, as the Eagles need to load up on rookie contracts now that Jalen Hurts‘ cap hit is rising dramatically over the next few years. Campbell and Mukuba might be the only future starters, but there were plenty of capable contributors added on Day 3.”

I think the reason Sharp didn’t give the Eagles an A comes from his superlatives. For each team, he gave each team an “instant impact” pick, a “best value” pick, and a “riskiest” pick. For instant impact and best value, he said it was Mukuba and Williams. For the riskiest pick, he said it was Jihaad Campbell. 

I’m guessing that because the Eagles' first-round pick was their riskiest pick, it stopped them from getting the ever converted, yet meaningless ‘A’

Chris Trapasso, CBS Sports: B+

CBS Sports’ draft grades are somewhat confusing. They had three different people give grades to each player who was drafted (presumably on different criteria), and then they came up with an overall grade. 

For this one specifically, the Eagles got a B+, but they only had one pick that was given a B+ grade, and it was Cameron Williams; everyone else was either a B or a C+. I have no idea how this grading scale works. Even after doing the math (using a GPA scale), the Eagles got a C+ based on all the grades. 

Regardless, Trapasso’s main issue was the Eagles drafting Mukuba when they did. He says, “Mukuba was picked slightly early and I'm not sure there was a major need at safety.”

Well… let’s agree to disagree there, Mr. Trapasso. Safety was a huge point of need. You can’t lose a player like C.J. Gardner-Johnson and then not replace him with anyone. 

He also says, “Robinson is a no-nonsense, thick and athletic rusher inside, and McWilliams a super-chippy and sudden cornerback with some Avonte Maddox to his game. As per usual, some of my favorite Roseman picks occurred later, especially the three-pick stretch of Hinton, Williams, and Powell-Ryland. The two blockers have plus starter upside, and Powell-Ryland would've probably been a Day 2 pick if he had longer arms.” B+? Whatever. 

Pete Prisco also did his own draft grades for CBS Sports, but that’s a guy who says Trevor Lawrence, Dak Prescott and Baker Mayfield are better quarterbacks than Jalen Hurts. He gave the Eagles a B+. I think I would rather have him give the Eagles an ‘F’ because he’s consistently wrong and constantly out of touch.

Charles McDonald, Yahoo Sports: B

Charles McDonald started by saying that the Eagles were smart and opportunistic by drafting Campbell in the first round because he was projected to go higher than 31, meaning he expected Campbell to get picked sooner.

Then he went on to talk about how Mukuba is going to help keep the defensive backs young and talented. Essentially, the same stuff that everyone else has been saying. 

His knock on the Eagles draft seemingly came from the Eagles drafting Smael Mondon Jr. All he said about it was, “Drafting another linebacker in Georgia’s Smael Mondon Jr. was an interesting move.”

I don’t know what interesting means in this aspect, but typically, saying something is "interesting" is a super polite way of saying, "I hate that." I’m going to continue to be very defensive of Howie Roseman: if you’re going to drop the Eagles grade down from an A, doing it because a fifth-round pick is "interesting" isn't a great reason. 

Hell, he also gave the Giants a B, and those guys traded back up into the first round to draft Jaxson Dart. That alone is infinitely worse than an Eagles’ draft pick that makes you shrug.