Howie Roseman took the podium midway through the third round of the NFL Draft and acknowledged the confluence of decisions that hastened his arrival to the “end” of the Eagles‘ night about an hour earlier than expected.
“An eventful day and night.”
Indeed it was. The Eagles used the No. 54 overall pick to select Vanderbilt tight end Eli Stowers and finalized a trade for 28-year-old edge rusher Jonathan Greenard roughly five minutes later, leaving the front office to turn in early once the card for Miami tackle Markel Bell with the No. 68 pick was submitted to the league.
Here are five takeaways from Roseman’s flurry of moves:
1. Howie Roseman isn’t focused on what Eli Stowers’ can’t do.
The 6-foot-4, 239-pound converted quarterback put together one of the most impressive combine performances in recent memory with as 4.51-second 40-yard dash and 99th percentile broad and vertical jumps, showcasing the type of explosiveness and vertical speed that inform the upside he has as a premier pass catcher running down the seam or working in the middle of the field.
Stowers was productive in college as a receiving threat, too. He caught 62 passes for 769 yards and four touchdowns last season as a matchup nightmare capable of working the seams, finding soft spots in zone coverage or climbing the ladder for difficult catches in the middle of the field.
That’s what Stowers can do at the next level if afforded the right role in the Eagles offense, but it comes with some important caveats: The former four-star quarterback recruit requires a great deal of projection to be counted on in any capacity as a blocker. Vanderbilt often took him off the field in obvious run situations and even instances when he needed to work upfield to block defensive backs weren’t always a smooth experience.
For that reason, it’s fair to ask how exactly the Eagles view the one-dimensional nature of Stowers’ game, to which Roseman said the following …
“We’re trying to find out what the guy can do really well,” Roseman said. “If you focus only on what guys can’t do, you’re going to have some negatives for some of the top players in the draft. When you find guys that have unique skill sets, we have a lot of confidence in our coaches and our staffs to develop players. Especially when they have high football IQ and high character and we know they’re tough, it’s exciting.”
The mention of the “coaches and staff” is an important one here. Roseman’s bet on Stowers is more than just an infatuation with the player, it’s a belief that the Eagles will find a way to get the most out of the 23-year-old with the “unusual” traits the organization covets.
And for what it’s worth, our draft expert Fran Duffy did point out that Stowers’ limitations aren’t due to a lack of willingness, something echoed by Stowers in a video conference with reporters shortly after the Eagles selected him.
2. The Eagles defense plugged its biggest hole on Friday.
For as good as the group looked even going into draft weekend, the absence of a true No. 1 atop the edge rusher depth chart after Jaelan Phillips’ departure stood out and justified the momentum toward the Greenard trade that now gives the Eagles exactly that.
The Eagles sent the 98th pick in this year’s draft along with a 2027 third-round pick in next year’s to the Minnesota Vikings for Greenard, who also signed a four-year, $100 million contract with the Eagles in tandem with the trade.
Although Greenard is coming off a down year with just three sacks, the move gives the Eagles an edge rusher capable of replicating the spark Phillips gave the defense at the midway point of last season. It’s also worth noting the two third-round picks the Eagles gave up in the deal were effectively balanced out by compensatory picks: The third in this year’s draft was a comp pick for Milton Williams and the ’27 third-rounder will be counterbalanced by the compensatory pick the Eagles are due for losing Phillips in free agency.
“We felt that we had a really good D-line,” Roseman said. “But we wanted to elevate it to another level.”
Safety is still a hole that needs filling, but the premium the Eagles place on pass rush made a trade like this one a necessary one. It did leave me wondering just how solid the group would have look had the team taken Toledo safety Emmanuel McNeil-Warren instead of Stowers in the second round, though.
Another quick note on the Greenard trade: The lead-up to the deal was long enough in the making that Greenard was in town Friday before the trade was finalized, which freed him up to go to the Sixers‘ playoff game against the Boston Celtics.
3. Going back to Stowers for a moment …
The Eagles using their first two picks in this year’s draft not only on pass catchers, but ones that will require creativity in their usage even further underscores the sea change coming for the Eagles offense and Jalen Hurts at the center of it this upcoming season.
Both Stowers and first-round receiver Makai Lemon did most of their best work in college working over the middle of the field and finding space against zone coverage. Neither would be ideal “line up and win your one-on-one” type players, although Stowers especially should be a matchup advantage in specific scenarios.
But if you’re looking for the Eagles to replace A.J. Brown “in the aggregate,” the absence of a player who can win vertically outside the numbers is still a glaring absence. The Eagles offense can be a dynamic one with Lemon and Stowers as the two complementary pieces around DeVonta Smith, but it will require a clear vision from Sean Mannion and a clear shift from Hurts in the areas of the field and the spaces in coverages he’s willing to attack.
4. Roseman’s busy two days give way to what should be a quiet Saturday afternoon.
Perhaps this will be famous last words, but the general manager’s decision to trade away two fourth-rounders on night one in tandem with using mid-round picks for Greenard and wide receiver Dontayvion Wicks has left the Eagles with just three selections on Day 3 and a gargantuan 110-pick gap from the selection they used on Markel Bell in the third round to their next pick at the end of the fifth-round.
Picking at 178 and again at No. 197 means it’ll be hard for them to maneuver in the early rounds without jeopardizing future picks. Another hint that this will likely be a smaller class than the Eagles have had in the last few years? Roseman already making his argument that the veteran additions should be viewed as part of the rookie class rather than moves at the expense of it.
“You’ve got to put Greenard into this draft, you’ve got to put Wicks into this draft,” Roseman said. “Those are two guys obviously we traded picks for. … From our perspective, that’s part of this weekend.”
The moves will spoil one of the Eagles better-known traditions on draft weekend, though, a meeting before the start of Day 3 where members of the scouting department take turns advocating for the prospects they’ve labeled as “passion players” during the evaluation process in front of the group.
“Not picking in the fourth round hurts,” Roseman said. “But I think when we look at what we’ve done and the players that we added overall, we’l get through those couple hours and be excited about the guys that we have tomorrow to add some players.”
5. Markel Bell shows that the Eagles still have a type on the offensive line.
The 6-9, 346 pound tackle prospect isa the type of “unusual” offensive line prospect the team gravitated toward for the entirety of Jeff Stoutland’s tenure as offensive line coach and affirms Roseman’s comments earlier this offseason that his preferences at the position wouldn’t change because of Stoutland’s decision to leave the coaching staff earlier this offseason.
The thing I like about the Bell trade is the multiple pathways for him to stick with the Eagles. He could wind up assuming the swing tackle spot currently occupied by Fred Johnson in a season’s time. He could also develop into a starting-caliber player for the Eagles, but the draft slot used on him won’t preclude them from once again searching for a successor for the right tackle of the future in the draft this time next year.
Not to mention, he’ll be a fascinating player to watch during training camp.
