I didn’t want to let the draft go away completely without telling you what I feel is the most underrated and unknown story of draft weekend. I didn’t notice it until I started piecing together all the trades from Day 2 of the draft, starting with the Giants’ deal with Philadelphia that allowed New York to pick wide receiver Ramses Barden with a choice in the middle of the third round. But the upshot of that trade, and four others within five hours, left the Eagles as the power players in the 2010 draft.What would you think if I told you the Philadelphia Eagles got third-, fifth-, sixth- and seventh-round draft choices, plus half a starting cornerback for nothing in this year’s draft?
That’s right. For free. There is no smoke, mirrors or cheating involved. Only thought and effort.
For moving down six spots in the third round — eventually taking a player they were considering for that 85th pick anyway — the Eagles got filthy rich. I am shocked more teams don’t run their draft the way the Eagles do. It’s almost irresponsible that teams don’t do it the Philadelphia way.
“Actually, I’m happy more teams don’t,” said Tom Heckert, the Eagles general manager. “If more teams did, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do.”
This may come out the wrong way, so bear with me. But if I were a football fan looking for a team to root for, I’d pick the Eagles, and what they did on draft weekend is a big reason. The Eagles think. They don’t do things the way they’ve always been done because that’s the way they’ve always been done. For all the frustrations they’ve given their fans because they haven’t won a championship in the 10-year Andy Reid Era, they’ve done what, as a fan, I’d like my team to do: They give their fans a chance every July at camp time to think they’re going to make the playoffs and have a chance to contend for the Super Bowl. Isn’t that what you want, as a fan? A chance, every year? What team every year in this decade has given you that chance? Philadelphia. New England. Indianapolis. Pittsburgh. The Giants, maybe.
But what the Eagles did on the second day of the draft — still unnoticed eight days later; no one’s said a word about it — is one of the greatest feats of trading down and getting value for the future that I’ve ever seen. And I mean ever. They took the 85th pick and eventually turned it into four draft choices between the third and seventh rounds, plus half of the compensation paid to New England to acquire Ellis Hobbs, a Super Bowl XLII starting corner. -Peter King from SI.com
Well said here. The Eagles were the Bobby Fischer of this years draft as far as moves are concerned. We will just have to wait and see in the next 3-4 years who had the best overall draft though. A lot of people forget all of the wheeling and dealing that the Eagles did on draft day, as expected. But I honestly don’t think that the draft could of gone much better for them. Two thumbs up Eagles!
This was an epic draft for the Eagles, next year has the chance to be that way to with the position we made for ourselves via trades