Latest Mock Draft Has Philadelphia Eagles Selecting Freak Athlete in First Round
He's one of the more raw prospects in the draft, but he'd fill a hole left by free agency and has the athletic prowess to turn into quite a player.
Video Transcript
Latest mock draft has the Philadelphia Eagles selecting a freak athlete in the first round.
This is Arsene Azemi with Eagles Roundtable.
Let's get into it.
The Eagles are in a bit of a strange spot right now in this offseason.
If you ask some fans, they'll tell you that the sky is falling and that the team might as well look past this next season and on to the next.
And if you ask other fans, they'll tell you they still have faith in what Howie Roseman has done, you know, historically in the offseasons and that they know that the work that needs to be done will be done.
Now, the Eagles entered this offseason needing the answers to a lot of questions, and a lot of those have been answered so far.
They needed a decision on what to do at offensive coordinator, swapped out Patullo for Manion, had a lot of in-house free agents.
And while many of them left, like Jalen Phillips, Nakobe Dean, Reed Blankenship, they were able to re-sign Dallas Goddard and brought in some solid talent on defense as well and a guy like Reek Wolman.
So not all is lost, certainly, yet in free agency.
Now, the to-do list is making a decision on A.J.
Brown and hopefully knocking yet another draft out of the park.
And in the latest mock draft by Bleacher Report, the Eagles were slated to take edge Malachi Lawrence with the 23rd pick.
Now, Lawrence is out of UCF, a solid defensive draft, so, you know, it doesn't hurt to take a defensive player this year for sure.
In the last three seasons at UCF, Lawrence recorded 70 total sacks, or rather 70 total tackles, 19 and a half sacks, and 27 and a half tackles for loss.
So it's solid production, but it doesn't scream automatic first-round pick by any means.
What helps him a lot is his athleticism.
Now, Lawrence is a raw athlete, recorded a relative athletic score or RAS score of 9.94, which is very much in the elite category.
And with his athleticism and frame of 6'4", 253 pounds, he was actually compared by RAS to players like Josh Sweat, Brian Burns, and even to Neil Hunter.
So those are pretty big shoes to fill, to live up to rather, as comparisons.
Now, the Eagles, as I did mention, lost Jalen Phillips this offseason.
So it's not to say that Lawrence would come in and instantly be a guy like Jalen Phillips or like any of those guys I mentioned.
But if he can, you know, become even close to some of those guys on that list and Howie Roseman is able to pair him alongside, you know, the solid interior defensive line they already have of Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter, this is an Eagles defensive line that could be set to be getting even scarier.
