Peter King: Eagles love Georgia’s Nolan Smith in NFL Draft
We have finally reached NFL Draft week.
The Eagles currently have the 10th and 30th pick in Thursday's draft, and while everyone has thoughts on what the team might do, there is never an absolute until the pick is actually made.
That being said, some are more plugged in than others and one of those who is more plugged in is veteran NFL reporter Peter King over at NBC Sports.
King, who does his annual mock draft using insights from sources around the league to predict every first-round pick, has the Eagles taking a an edge rusher to help their defense.
While King said he was close to giving the Eagles Northwestern offensive lineman, Peter Skoronski with the 10th pick, King says he has heard from a rival GM that the Eagles love Nolan Smith from Georgia and ultimately went with the edge rusher.
Came very close to giving the Eagles Peter Skoronski here, but two things happened Sunday. A GM who’s always smart when I do this exercise told me he knew the Eagles love Smith.
One of the reasons he came to that conclusion is that Skoronski is projected to play guard, a position the team has usually waited to find deeper in the draft.
Cam Jurgens, Landon Dickerson, Isaac Seumalo went 51st, 37th and 79th overall, respectively. And then I looked at the ages of the Eagles’ four most prominent ends or edge players: Brandon Graham, Haason Reddick, Derek Barnett and Josh Sweat average 29 years, 7 months old as of September. Okay. I talked myself into a 238-pound edge player who runs a 4.39 40-yard dash.
Down at No. 30 there has been a lot of conversation about the Eagles taking Texas running back Bijan Robinson at No. 10, but King sees the Eagles taking a different running back - Alabama's Jahmyr Gibbs.
Might not be just the poor man’s Bijan Robinson. With 195 touches in his one year at Alabama, Gibbs averaged 6.1 yards per rush and 10.1 yards per catch, never fumbling. As good as Robinson was as a collegian, Gibbs has a few teams in this draft that liked him over Robinson for the NFL.
Gibbs name has also been gaining some steam for the Eagles at No. 30, who lost Miles Sanders in free agency, and brought in Rashaad Penny, who has dealt with plenty of injury issues since entering the league.
Gibbs might not be as high profile as Robinson, but he may have been more productive. The running back averaged an eye-popping 6.1 yards per carry and 10.1 per catch out of the Crimson Tide backfield.
We'll find out soon enough.