Editor’s note:\u00a0With the 91st annual NFL Draft set to take place in Pittsburgh from April 23-25, our own Maurio Damiano examines storylines of the draft, with a focus on Pennsylvania’s teams and their roster needs.\u00a0His column will appear every Monday.<\/p>\n
A Different Mindset in Philadelphia\u00a0<\/p>\n
While some franchises head into the NFL Draft hoping it will save them, the Philadelphia Eagles enter every April with\u00a0a very different\u00a0mindset. They are not drafting out of desperation. They are drafting to stay exactly where they\u00a0have been for the better part of this decade:\u00a0relevant, competitive\u00a0and in the\u00a0Super Bowl\u00a0conversation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The distinction is\u00a0very significant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Building to Sustain Success\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Eagles have become the gold standard for roster construction in today\u2019s NFL, not because they never make mistakes, but because they rarely panic. Year after year, whether\u00a0they are\u00a0coming off a Super Bowl appearance or an early playoff exit, Philadelphia sticks to the same blueprint. Build through the trenches, prioritize long-term\u00a0value\u00a0and trust development over impulse.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Eagles have taken defensive players in the first round in each of the last four seasons, and that philosophy has\u00a0put\u00a0them\u00a0in\u00a0the playoff hunt year in and year out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Quarterback Advantage\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another key advantage Philadelphia has is stability at quarterback. When a team believes in its quarterback, the draft becomes much simpler.\u00a0There\u00a0have\u00a0been questions about Jalen Hurts in the past from some media members. However, the young man is a Super Bowl champion and Super Bowl MVP, something no one can take away from him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When you have a guy like that\u00a0in\u00a0the most\u00a0important position,\u00a0you are not\u00a0drafting\u00a0scared. Instead, you can focus on strengthening the roster around that position, which is exactly what the Eagles have done.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Teams without answers at quarterback often spend April chasing one. Teams with answers can afford patience.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Where the Eagles Invest\u00a0<\/p>\n
That is why Philadelphia can afford to prioritize offensive line depth, defensive line rotation, and secondary reinforcements rather than flashy skill players.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0not that the Eagles\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0value playmakers \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0that they only take them when the value aligns.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Eagles have spent most of their\u00a0day one\u00a0and\u00a0day\u00a0two\u00a0draft capital on defensive players in recent memory\u00a0\u2013 only two offensive players selected out of 12.\u00a0However, these investments have\u00a0bred\u00a0inconsistent\u00a0results. Since\u00a02022, in order, Philadelphia has ranked 8th, 30th, 2nd, and 13th in total defense. In the years they\u00a0were in the\u00a0top\u00a0eight, they went to the Super Bowl.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maybe\u00a0they\u00a0will continue that trend in 2026,\u00a0or\u00a0maybe they\u00a0will make a big trade.\u00a0AJ Brown has caused turmoil for\u00a0years,\u00a0so it may be time for him to go and leave a vacuum\u00a0that\u00a0the\u00a0Eagles can fill.\u00a0On\u00a0the offensive side of the ball, Lane Johnson is getting older,\u00a0so\u00a0the\u00a0offensive\u00a0line may be somewhere they want to look as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the 23rd pick, the higher profile names will be off the board, but some solid players from the trenches will be available. Alabama\u00a0offensive lineman\u00a0Kadyn Proctor\u00a0will be someone to keep an eye on as time goes on. Proctor is\u00a0six feet seven inches tall and over 300 pounds,\u00a0certainly\u00a0a solid replacement for Johnson when his time comes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What It Means for the 2026 Draft\u00a0<\/p>\n
Philadelphia may not make the loudest move. They may not dominate headlines. But they will\u00a0almost certainly\u00a0walk away with players who contribute sooner than expected and stick longer than most.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0mean this draft\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0important for the Eagles.\u00a0It is. Sustaining success is harder than achieving it, and the margin for error shrinks when expectations are high. Depth, youth,\u00a0and cost-controlled talent become even more critical when a team expects to be playing in\u00a0February\u00a0every year.\u00a0That is why they treat the draft not as a reset, but as maintenance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While other teams hope the draft will change their future, the Eagles\u00a0view it as a continuation of theirs.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Editor’s note:\u00a0With the 91st annual NFL Draft set to take place in Pittsburgh from April 23-25, our own…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":741961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5831,7,106798,106797,492,19341,122,6,15,1890,242,109,1257,9,106799,106800],"class_list":{"0":"post-741960","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-aj-brown","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-indiana-university-of-pennslyvania","11":"tag-iup","12":"tag-jalen-hurts","13":"tag-kadyn-proctor","14":"tag-national-football-league","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-nfl-draft","17":"tag-nfl-teams","18":"tag-philadelphia","19":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","20":"tag-quarterback","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-the-penn","23":"tag-top-sports-story"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116045111937201724","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=741960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}