Last week I looked back at the Eagles’ top round 1 draft targets to see how each was doing in preseason. This week, I’ll look at our favorites and often-mocked players at pick 37. I think a lot of Philly was surprised with the Eagles 2nd round pick of Landon Dickerson, not because he wasn’t a good pick but because Howie had been shying away from injuries in 2020. I love the pick of Landon, but there were several other players in play.
Again, I am subjectively ordering these starting with who I think is having the best preseason.
1. Terrace Marshall
Summary: Terrace dropped way too far in the draft and would have been a great pick at 37 if we did not get DeVonta
Marshall was probably the Eagles top pre-draft wish at 37 with most worried if he would still be there when the Eagles picked. He ended up sliding all the way to 59, giving the Panthers what was probably the most commonly mocked Eagles draft with R1 Horn and R2 Marshall. Marshall missed OTAs as he healed but now that preseason has started, he is battling for the WR3 spot behind Robby Anderson and DJ Moore with some thoughts that he will be the Panthers “big slot” receiver – at his size, this would be a matchup issue for many teams. Rhule said they are trying to “force feed Terrace and bring him along as fast as we can”. Here he is beating other favorite Jaycee Horn:
Marshall has played a good amount of slot and outside this preseason and think he will see the field plenty this year as he put up some gaudy numbers in limited action as the highest rated receiver with at least 5 targets in the preseason:
2. Creed Humphrey
Summary: The top graded rookie center so far
I thought if the Eagles went center, it would have been Creed – we are only one year removed from Howie declaring his (ever-changing) draft philosophy being “can they run, do they love football, and are they healthy?” Landon was the best center prospect, but I never imagined Howie going with his injury history.
This is already looking like a good center class (with 2022 expected to be another) but I am still shocked at some of the teams that passed on centers – specifically I don’t know what the Rams were thinking and the Steelers needed a center and a tackle. The Chiefs were one of several teams that really needed a center and got a starting center. We all know Andy Reid’s resistance to playing rookies quickly and he spoke about this regarding Creed, but he will be the starting center. With 52 snaps player so far, Creed is the only rookie with a grade over 80 in both run and pass blocking and has allowed 0 pressures.
As for camp clips, this is my favorite so far of Creed:
I would have been super happy with Creed and time will tell on Landon, which obviously all comes down to his health.
3. Trevon Moehrig
There wasn’t a great chance of the Eagles taking Moehrig as it wasn’t a priority position, but he’s another player that got interesting from a BPA perspective. He was the consensus best safety in the draft and viewed as a late teens / early twenties pick but dropped due to a back injury.
He has the Raiders starting free safety spot already and has impressed teammates with how he works, earning the nickname “Silent Assassin”. In joint practice with the Rams, Moehrig picked off Stafford once and dropped a second interception.
It is kinda fun searching Twitter posts on Moehrig because there are a bunch of “my favorite team shoulda drafted Moehrig” draft-remorse tweets out there like:
4. Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah
Summary: It was nice to dream of getting an LB high…
Probably the biggest favorite of Eagles fans as day 1 ended as he was predicted to go as high as the teens, leading to pre-day 2 re-mocks with JOK as a heavy target. He had legendarily entertaining highlights where he routinely destroyed people and had the 2nd best slot coverage grade in the NCAA (including defensive backs, not just linebackers), but the big question was his size and fit in the league with many thinking he may be a safety or hybrid defender to put on TEs and other mismatches. Which would have fit a great need for the Eagles but at the time of the draft, maybe a little unclear if it fit Sirianni and Gannon’s defense (he was clearly a player Howie would not have taken prior).
JOK missed time due to Covid and had a good first preseason game but is still a bit buried on the Browns depth chart and not expected to be ready to start the year. He has flashed his speed in games:
It probably was never realistic that the Eagles would have taken JOK as while they are looking to hybrid defenders more (JaCoby is one, but later in the draft), Howie continues to not invest in LB high.
5. Asante Samuel Jr.
Summary: Some nice highlight INTs but has been giving up receptions
After DeVonta dropped and was taken in the first, almost all of Philly turned their focus to corner which was the biggest need for the team. Historically, CB is the most heavily drafted position in the first 2 rounds (on average 5.1 are taken in the 1st round, 8 through 2 rounds) and 2021 was the same. By the time the Eagles pick came, the top CBs were gone but also some borderline round 1 / 2 corners like Tyson Campbell and Eric Stokes, making Asante the most logical remaining target for the Eagles as they did have a pre-draft virtual meeting with him.
Asante has had a couple of pretty well-shared highlights, picking off Jimmy G both in a joint practice and in game 2 on a tipped ball.
Asante has had 23 coverage snaps in preseason and 4 targets, but has allowed 3 receptions for an 11.3 average and 25 yards after catch. Small sample size caveat and the Chargers are happy with this pick, but he has some growth to show. He’s currently behind Chris Harris Jr. on the depth chart for slot corner. Harris had a 57.4 coverage grade last year and has shown decline over the past two years so I expect Asante to play a good amount and will have a chance to take this position this year.
If you have read any of my draft stuff, you know I wanted a top corner and once we went with DeVonta, the chances of getting a really good corner drops significantly by the second. Of these targets above, I actually was most interested in JOK as we need that mismatch equalizer and you get great coverage from him as well. The Eagles did a good job not forcing a position need this year but will have to address corner in 2022 – but with 4 picks in the first 2 rounds and an expected really strong corner class, they will have their opportunities while staying true to their board.
We haven’t seen anything from Landon yet and there is a good chance he redshirts this year, but I like us taking the best center in the draft at 37 (and even if Landon moves to guard as we need a guard anyway). It really comes down to Landon being healthy. After the draft, I wrote on Landon and will include the clip here regarding his injury history:
What could go wrong? Easy, obviously his injury history. Between my deep dive on CBs and researching microdiscectomies for Caleb Farly and now Landon’s ACL, I feel like part data nerd, part orthopaedic. The best study I could find on recurrent ACL tears was this one which did show an elevated risk or re-tearing the same ACL, but it is only slightly higher than initial tears (12% re-tearing same ACL vs. 9% in the control group). Me, I will bet on the guy who went out in the national championship for the final ceremonial snaps a week after his ACL tear and famously showed off his cartwheels in Mac Jones’ interview.