The Draft…

I found out that I wasn’t drafted when my brother called me to tell me that he was drafted. I discovered who was drafted in the1982 the following day when I opened up the sports page to the Durham Morning Herald. In 1981 the New York Giants held the No. 2 pick.

Prior to draft day, the head coach of the Giants, Ray Perkins, flew to Chapel Hill, NC to meet a player known as Lawrence Taylor. Just the coach and the player met in a film room and watched five or six game tapes together.

At the end of the film session, Taylor asked the coach if he should go get dressed to workout. Perkins responded, ” That won’t be necessary. If you are there at #2 we will draft you.” The Giants drafted the player who become known simply as L.T. and with their cornerstone in place went on to win two Super Bowls.

I start this column to offer perspective on what the NFL draft use to be. It wasn’t televised. There was no combine. There was hardly any interaction between players and teams. Heck, there wasn’t anything called a mock draft.

Times surely have changed. I read my first mock draft for the 2014 draft prior to the championship games this past year. Its was like going into Walmart in October and seeing Christmas Trees. It was just too darn soon. But that is the age of anticipation that we live in and the NFL is trying to keep pace with the demand for any information on any player and what any team may be inclined to do.

I work at the NFL Network with a former NFL scout for three teams over 10 years, Daniel Jeremiah. He is as informed and knowledgeable as anyone in the business today. But he said something to me recently that put this whole draft process in perspective for me. DJ said that when he first started in the scouting business that he spent 75 percent of his time scouting and analyzing players and the other 25 percent finding out the character issues of that player. He said he exited the business 3 years ago after he began spending 75 percent of his time uncovering a players character and the remaining 25 percent of whether he could play or not.

I think this is significant because we are in information overload and we the fans, as well as the teams, are forced to decipher what is real and what is important. And with the information overload at its zenith we still don’t know the most important factor of a draft eligible player…” does he love the game.”

In 1992 I came to the Eagles in my 11th year in the league.

My former OL coach in Indianapolis, Bill Muir, was the new OL coach of the Eagles.

It was a team dominated by defensive stars, lead by the indomitable, Reggie White. He lined up against our No. 1 pick that year, Antone Davis. Ironically they both attended Tennessee. Both were 6-foot-5 and north of 330 lbs.

Antone was the ninth player picked in the entire draft with incredible size, footwork, and quickness. And everyday Reggie tossed Antone out of the way on his march to the QB. Unfortunately too many defensive ends in the league would do that to Antone. The worst part was it didn’t bother Antone. Antone didn’t love football. He didn’t even like it.

And so this 2014 draft has as much raw talent across the board as any that I have studied in recent years. The question is which ones of the talent pool are more like Antone and which want to strive to be like the Minister of Defense.

The best player in this year’s draft is a kid from South Carolina named Jadeveon. He has a lot of Antone in him and I don’t believe he will ever live up to his immense talent. The draft is defined by Johnny Football, Johnny Manziel, who has been the most exciting player in college football for the past 2 years. He loves the game but not enough to put all of hi other interests aside and fully dedicate himself to being a Reggie White.

So what does all of this mean for the Philadelphia Eagles? Two decisions by the Eagles in the off season has set a precedence on what they will do. They believe that size matters, and for the past two years they have tried to get bigger at every position and they have.

In the case of DeSean Jackson, size was more important than his speed.

But in addition, being a diva, and D-Jack was that, does not win championships in the NFL. And certainly not in Chips modus operandi.

Hard work, dedication, and team is the only way it is going to happen. 53 sets of oars all rowing in the same direction all of the time is the only chance for bringing the championship to So Philly.

The second decision was the efforts to trade their second round pick this year and their former first round pick, Brandon Graham, to Miami for right outside linebacker of the Miami Dolphins, Dion Jordan.

Chip recruited and coached Jordan at Oregon and knows the type of natural outside linebacker the Eagles are so desperately looking for to upgrade the transition to their 3-4 defense.

Regardless of what the Eagles say about picking the best player available when they pick at No. 22 and No. 54 in the first and the second round I believe that have to plug their two biggest weaknesses, ROLB and WR, with their first two picks. Lots of WR’s to choose from but very few ROLB’s.

One name that they have to consider is the ROLB from UCLA…Anthony Barr.

He is a converted running back and reluctantly switched to ROLB under new coach Jim Mora.

The Eagles would have to engineer a trade to move up from No. 22 to get Barr. Two years from now he could be a a pro bowl player. The irony is that his dad was a RB with the Birds in 1993.

This is the deepest selection of WR’s in any draft.

Whatever you want you can find from DeSean clone in Brandin Cooks from Oregon State to Riley Cooper clone in Penn State’s Allen Robinson.

Robinson wouldn’t be a bad selection in the third round. If they can find a way to trade for Barr in the first round then I would spend my second round pick, No. 54 on one of two WR’s.

The SEC’S all time leading reciever from Vanderbilt named Jordan Mathews would be a smart choice. Or they could take Indian’s Cody Latimer. Both WR’s are over 6-2 and over 215 pounds.

Excellent kids, athletes, and will be non divas during their tenure. They could grab Ahmad Dixon at strong safety from Baylor in the fourth round. In the third round they could grab OL Jack Mewhort from Ohio State and begin to groom their OG of the future.

Of course they could say Baldy we love you but Johnny Manziel is a once-in-a-lifetime player and we won’t ever pass on that kind of player and throw a monkey wrench into my 100 hours of Eagle study.

Isn’t that the fun of the draft and why we follow every move; every rumor; and read mock drafts in January?

Regardless of who the Birds select I only wish for one thing. In the 2015 draft the Birds select a WHOLE lot lower than No. 22.