Damn right.
Should Howie be as vilified as he is regarding drafting QB’s?
As you read, try and hear the distinctive funky guitar and hi-hat cymbal sounds of the great Isaac Hayes in your head. Right on!
The perception of most Eagles fans is that the front office can’t draft a Quarterback. Most believe Howie and his team have tried, and failed miserably at this. Most of this was brought on by Howie himself when he made his infamous statement “We want to be a QB factory”.
I went back 15 years to look at every QB selection the Eagles have made. During that span they have only drafted 7 QB, basically one every other year. A few of these picks Howie had little to nothing to do with. Lurie on the other hand, green lighted every one of them.
2007 round 2 pick 4 (36th overall) Kevin Kolb
2010 round 4 pick 24 (122nd overall) Mike Kafka
2012 round 3 pick 25 (88th overall) Nick Foles
Of the 7 Quarterbacks selected, I would think it is fair to say Howie had little input on all 3 of these despite him being named GM in 2010. Andy Reid had full autonomy during this era, and if there is anyone left with any culpability, it would be Jeff Lurie.
2013 round 4 pick 1 (98th overall) Matt Barkley
Chip Kelly’s first season as head coach and the beginning of the end of Howie’s GM stint.
Barkley never turned into what Howie (and the Eagles) envisioned (even though it is debatable that one should expect high success at the QB position with a 4th round pick). The draft did bring Lane Johnson, Zach Ertz and Bennie Logan with the first 3 picks, but that didn’t impress Chip.
2016 round 1 pick 2 (2nd overall) Carson Wentz
The wheeling and dealing Howie did to get the second overall pick is a fascinating story in itself. I would think most agree that prior to his 2017 injury vs the Rams, Carson was on his way to an MVP season. He seemingly had a bright future and career with Philadelphia. The injury, Nick Foles coming on in relief to win the Super Bowl (and MVP honors of the game) seemed to be too much for Carson to overcome. Maybe the front office, fans, and teammates didn’t overcome that either.
2019 round 5 pick 29 (167th overall) Clayton Thorson
A disastrous pick. He never even made it through the summer. Just an indefensible miss.
2020 round 2 pick 21 (53rd overall) Jalen Hurts
So what does Howie do after the 2019 blunder? He stands pat in the 2020 draft and doesn’t trade his 2nd round pick to acquire Cee Dee Lamb, possibly to make amends in his own mind at the Thorson mistake. He selects Jalen Hurts out of Oklahoma. Howie is a smart man (we all know his background, Florida and Fordham) and rarely is he going to tell the media why he makes the selections he does. On the fly, he made the regrettable QB factory statement. (Why he didn’t have an answer ready is more surprising. Hard to imagine he did not anticipate the back lash and questions) Howie was also very careful not to hurt Carson’s fragile ego. So he made himself look worse, and brought more scrutiny to the position, unnecessarily.
“We liked the player, he was the best on our board, next question?”
So as a recap:
QB’s drafted that Howie is probably responsible for
Barkely, 4th rd, a miss. How many are good at this point in the draft?
Wentz, 1st rd, a success. He chose the right QB in that draft.
Thorson, 5th rd and a miss. The worst miss but wasted the least capital.
Hurts, 2nd round, the outcome of this decision is a work in progress. (trending up)
Conclusion:
Howie made a big move and drafted what everyone believed to be a long term franchise QB (I went to Carson’s debut vs the Browns and remember telling the person beside me, ”we finally got one” everyone was elated with Carson pre 2018 injury.
Soley focusing on the QB position alone (discussing other positions is where the real flaw of his drafts are in my opinion ie: lack of LB and misses with WR and CB) where did he go wrong? What would you have done differently?
Not select Thorson? (he wasted a 5th rd pick, every GM does)
What QB would this franchise have if you ran the team?
Thank you, as always, for reading
David
Follow me @PHLEagleNews