Dallas, I Love You
As the NFL draft kicked off last night with round 1, all 32 teams look to in this 3 day period add impact players that can help their franchises win games and hopefully super bowls. Players who headlined the night were most QB's in Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, Trey Lance, Justin Fields, and Mac Jones. But there were also other huge names drafted last night including Jaylen Waddle, Ja'Marr Chase, DeVonta Smith, Kyle Pitts, Penei Sewell, and much more. The Eagles who sat last night with the 12th pick in the draft looked to add an impact player last night and oh boy did they do that. Philly looked to add a skill position player on either side of the ball targeting wide receivers and cornerbacks and as the board started to dwindle down they realized to be able to land their guy they would ultimately have to make a trade.
Jaycee Horn goes 8 to Carolina, Patrick Surtain goes 9 to Denver, and Dallas is now on the clock at 10. Both corners are off the board that they were targeting so now they are stuck and deciding who they want at pick 10 and the possibility of moving down. With about 4 minutes left on the clock, it's announced Dallas has moved the 10th pick in the draft. The team acquiring this pick was no other than the Philadelphia Eagles. A swap of picks 10 and 12 plus pick 84 going to Dallas allowed the Eagles to jump up ahead of the Giants and select Alabama WR DeVonta Smith. The Eagles walked out of the first round with a wide receiver they most definitely needed. This move was taken well by the fan base with mostly all of Eagles nation excited and happy about the reality of Smith to Philadelphia. This was a player Eagles fans after moving back to 12 with Miami were targeting as a player they wanted.
DeVonta on draft night was excited about being drafted by the Eagles and is ready to get to work in Philadelphia. Smith is an immediate impact on the young Eagles wide receiver room and will be the immediate presumed WR1 with the Eagles. He is best known as an elite route runner with strong hands who's great after the catch. In a press conference with Andy Weidl, Howie Roseman, and Nick Sirianni, said to expect DeVonta to move around the football field and line up in different spots not just to be the presumed X, Y, or Z receiver. He mentioned that this ability of Smith jumped out to him on tape and was a reason as to why he fell in love with him in the draft process. I happen to agree with him there.
I myself along with most Eagles fans are fired up to draft DeVonta Smith in the first round of this year's NFL Draft. I expect to see him accomplish great things with the Eagles and to be a heck of a football player in Philadelphia. And as fired up we can get about selecting him on last night and rightfully so we have to remind ourselves that we have 9 more picks to go and 6 more rounds to go. This draft is far from over so I expect the Eagles to add some more impact players to this football team tonight and Saturday. Some potential round 2 guys the Eagles could target are Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, Asante Samuel Jr., Trevon Moehrig just to name a few. For more on those guys, however, check out SlayBurner's article where he dives in and breaks down each player and a few more. And once again, for this weekend we can say it. Dallas, I love you, and thank you for allowing us to draft DeVonta Smith instead of the New York Football Giants.