Daniel Jeremiah's Eagles mock NFL Draft, biggest needs & trade rumors

0:00Hey, everybody. Welcome to take off with John Clark, presented by Makefield Cutters and let's bring in the best draft analyst out there. Philadelphia's favorite draft analyst used to work with the Eagles, Daniel Jeremiah of NFL Network. It's good to see it. Good to see you, buddy. What's going on? Oh, man, I'm going to see you in Pittsburgh right across the state for the draft in a month. And I'm looking at your mock draft. Right now you have the Eagles taking a really, really big fella, Kaden Proctor from Alabama. So why do you think he's the guy offensive tackle for the Eagles? Well, I think getting ahead of it a little bit, something how he's been really good at of identifying their needs, not just where they are today, but where they're going to be in the future. And with Lane coming to the end here and quite honestly having some issues staying out there on the field, this gives them some insurance there long term to be the starting right tackle. And then also, you know, with Dickerson's health being what it is,

1:04I think this kid actually be a better guard than he is a tackle. So you've got someone who could slide in and play guard if you needed him to while also, you know, kind of manning that right tackle position and long term, whatever Lane decides to let it go. And you just mentioned at the injuries, Cam Jurgens and Lane and Dickerson both went to the Columbia this off season to try to, you know, rejuvenate their body and help their injuries. Is that the university or the country? Definitely not the university spelled a little bit differently. They went way down south. They went to the old, not to you, that's exactly right. So, so we see Lane and Dickerson give back a year and some guaranteed money on his deal. I can't remember the last time I saw this. So are you worried about the Eagles offensive wine as a whole? Look, there's just some question marks there. So when when healthy and at their peak, it's, you know, it's one of the best units in the entire league. You make the case of the best unit in the entire league. But they haven't been able to keep those guys, you know, rocking a roll and at a hundred percent at the same time. So, you know, offensive line,

2:04defensive line seems to be the direction I could see them going as we're a month out here. You'd also look at the potential on the defensive line, you know, what what past rushes would be there that would would be interesting to them. That was a tough one. I mean, I know they wanted Phillips back and then the money just kind of got out of control and got away from them there. But that that's another area I could see them address in here. But do you think there's still a possibility of them signing an edgerusher or trading for an edgerusher like Jonathan Grenard from the Vikings and then now we take them out of kneading an edgerusher in the draft? I think the Grenard thing makes all the sense in the world. It just they match up really, really well. So I would I will say that it's going to happen, you know, a hundred percent. But just when you look at that one from the outside, that just, it seems like that solves that issue. It frees them up then they can go along the offensive line or even if they wanted to look at the receiver position knowing there could be something coming down the line there as well. Now, last year we thought they would possibly go offensive tackle

3:05for Lane's replacement and they didn't they went first five picks on defense to replenish that defense. Jog Campbell, Andrew McCuba, they got in the first two couple rounds, got starters. Is there any part of you that thinks they would have to go for a knead on defense like safety or we mentioned edgerusher? Well, I like the big three safeties in the first round. You know, you've got you we look at the top, you've got downs, then you've got McNeil Warren for me at Toledo, then you got Thiniman from Oregon. All three of those guys are worthy picks and would be a tremendous value at that point in time if one of them were to get down there. So, I mean, yeah, they can they can sit there and take best available player and that would be a position that could could come in there and help them. I think the move that they made that was underrated and I know some people will kind of complain about it because of some some recent memory of bust in the in the playoffs with Rick Wolland and had kind of some, you know, it's some shaky moments. But he's very gifted. He's very tall and rangel and him being outside. I think that just frees them up when you've got when you've got one of the best nickels in the league who also happens to be able

4:08to play outside when you can just free him up to play inside, let Cooper Dejean do his thing. I think that's going to end up being a valuable move. God was talking to Daria Slay about it and he thinks Rick Wolland is the perfect fit for Vick Fangio's defense. He wouldn't tell me why based on some things that Vic does in the scheme. But do you see that being a good fit? Yeah, he's got really good ball skills and he can kind of play top down. So yeah, I know. I think he's I think he makes a lot of sense there. It's just he's got to work on some impulse control where he gets a little jumpy on some double moves, but outside of that. No, he can he can really find and play the ball. So a popular guy here in Philadelphia for this draft, Daniel. I'm sure you've heard about Kenyans to speak because Dallas Goddard came back for one more year after one more year last year. And do you think there's any chance because I see on your mock that that you may be there for the Eagles? Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, it's not really their MO. When you look at taking a tight end in the first round, I would pencil them more for trying to find a bigger inline,

5:10why tight end and the third, fourth round range. That feels a little bit more like their style. I love Sadek. He's a really good player. I mean, that would be a tremendous value for I have him ranked. He was one that when you start trying to marry him with teams, it just gets a little tricky. I could, I could see him going all the way up there in the top 12, 13 picks. I could see him sliding down towards the bottom of the first round. It's just, you know, how do you view him? He's not Colston Loveland. He's not six foot four, six foot five. He's not, you know, Warren who we saw last year, those guys were, were just bigger body, more traditional, why tight ends. This guy is more of a weapon. So when you say need last year, obviously, the Eagles had a need on defense. They went first five on defense, but would you say their need is more on defense or offense right now? I feel like to me that it's just a trenches is what it feels like. And that's offensive line, defensive line. And I would argue to me, just having some, some insurance along that offensive line would be at the top. I know, you know, with Nolan and with

6:15JLX, they can line up with two guys right now. They want to add some more pieces to that mix and maybe the Grenard thing can, can take care of that for them. There's still, I mean, you still got some of those veterans who are floating out there. Joey Bosa and company, those guys, you could, you know, you could plug in one of those if you needed to. I just know with offensive lineman, if you want him, you got to take him early. And I would, I would rather have an offensive lineman a year too early than a year too late. I'd like to get in front of that. And obviously you mentioned Lane Johnson, Dallas, Goddard, they're getting up there in age. So, so is that something in the back of how he's mind that he kind of got this extra year with Dallas, or else they probably, you know, would have had a need for tight end. Yeah, I mean, look, I'm not going to get in Howie's head because that's too busy. He's got too many thoughts going on there. He's going in a million different directions, keeping track of everything. So, but no, I think that's a nice bonus to have Goddard back. I do think though, if you look at last year, like the Seattle Seahawks got, when they get barner, like the fourth round, I think they got AJ barner in the fourth round, that ended up being a really good player form.

7:18The teams I talked to because you're seeing more and more 13 personnel across the league right now, it's kind of the new trend is it's harder to find the hand in the ground, you know, true, why tight end, six four, 250 plus pounds, like can block that to me seems like something they would be shopping for. And do you also kind of take into account the fact that they have a brand new offensive coordinator who's never called plays before and they need to kind of get that fit for him as well. Run first play action blocking tight end. I mean, overall, do you think they really want to make sure he's got everything he possibly needs for this offense with Jay one hurts. Yeah, and look, stout not being back as well. So, you know, there's, you know, you want to be able to put all the pieces in place so that you put your not only your players in a position to be successful, but also your coaches. So when you make changes along along that group, including in off at the offensive line coach position, I think you'd like to see those guys be fortified, whether that's with a tight end who can help them in the run game or whether that's

8:19having, you know, another big offensive lineman, they can they can, you know, forces away out of the field or at least be there when the inevitable injuries come. And we of course love seeing you on NFL network. We're going to catch your draft coverage in Pittsburgh, where we also love to move the sticks podcast. And you got the free agents podcast, right? You do everything. Oh, Rosenthal. Yeah. By the way, they told me I was doing a podcast with Rosenthal. I gave that thing two months. That thing's up on a year now. John, you know, sometimes it's just, you know, they surprise you. Greg just surprised me a little bit. I didn't think he pulled off, but here we are. So you didn't scout him very well. You didn't think there was a lot that it might have been, it might have been a bad evaluation. I don't know. I just, I just the confidence level was not high. And he came through. So I'll get with Tom. All right. Sometimes you get a sleeper. Good for you. Hey, I'm John Clark. And we are here in Ben Salem, PA at Make Field Pudders. And I got to tell you, we want to thank them for being our new sponsors of the takeoff podcast. And I've got putting issues when I get out there. I'm six foot five. And I had to get a custom putter. When I got this

9:19custom putter here, it changed my putting game. You know, when it's wintertime and we go get jackets, different size people need different sized jackets. Well, we got to get a custom putter for our size, our type of swing and everything. They break it all down for you. They build up the putter from scratch. They have all the data, the analytics, the statistics to get you to be a good putter. And when I came here to Make Field Pudders and I started to use my custom putter, I got to tell you, I make it with Make Field. So next time you're on the course with Make Field Pudders, go birdies. So when you're looking at the Eagles, if they go offensive tackle and let's say proctor there in the first round, you know, you've got the AJ Brown situation, the cloud that's kind of hanging over this whole thing. Where do you think that they would get a receiver in this draft? Where's a good spot for a receiver in this draft? Well, I think there's a ton of them. You know, the next draft that's shallow with the receiver position will be the first and

10:23quite some time because just we're getting them every year. So they're littered throughout this draft. I love the day two group of guys. I mean, I've got a group of 15 to 20 guys that I think can come in and get on the field next year and make an impact. So it's going to be kind of what they're looking for. You know, if you're looking for something similar to AJ, you've got some thicker guys. Bell from Louisville's coming off of an injury. So you have to be a little bit patient there, but he's 220 pounds. He could provide some of that physicality. Malachi field's not going to be as explosive as AJ, but at a Notre Dame's a big frame, big body, interesting player. And you can go even later on down the draft and you get to, you know, the fourth, fifth round guys like Josh Cameron from BYU who give him some size and some physicality there. So if they do decide to move on from AJ, they're not going to get anybody as good as him in this draft, in my opinion, where they're picking, but you can find some guys you can piece together to handle that role.

11:23In your gut, from all the things that you've heard out there, there's too much noise. Do you think AJ will be traded or do you think he's going to be on the birds this year? This is just my opinion on the outside with no, no inside information. To me, the Grinard thing, I would expect to happen in the AJ Brown thing I would expect to happen, but that's not, that's not for many information. That's just me being an observer from the outside and those two things, those two moves, they feel like Eagles moves and they feel like they make a lot of sense. I agree with you about the AJ situation and I think they've been trying to create a market outside of the Patriots, get the Rams out there interested and it just seems like the insiders, the national insiders have kind of said that AJ would rather be somewhere else and maybe the Eagles because of that feel the same way and it seems like because of that first date that we're just, we're just heading toward that departure or divorce. Yeah, I feel that way too. I'm sure that opinion. So what we'll see, we don't know till we get

12:25to that point, but that one, again, it makes sense for everybody. Do you think this draft, like you said, out of all the positions like receivers every year, you can get them. Every single year, every single year. It's just what we get. It's not even just the college situation. It's going down to high school. I mean, I remember, I broke some passing records in San Diego when I was, I graduated high school in 96 and they were like records from like the 70s. And then after we got to like 2005 or I don't even know if I'm in the top 20 anymore, like these things, like these kids are chucking the ball, like all the way from junior high all the way through high school into college. So you've got teams playing with spread offences, you got four receivers on the field at all times, like we're going to have receivers till the end of time. Yeah. And it's interesting about the AJ Brown situation because we heard a little reporting that maybe the Eagles would be okay with taking a first round pick from next year's draft. I think they would prefer that because of the, because of the value. Yeah. Next year's draft on,

13:27next year's draft looks loaded. So I would 100%. If you're going to get a first round pick for AJ Brown, I would request it to be a 27, not a 26. Wow. And give me your honest opinion. How many actual starters do you think there are in this draft first round? Well, there's difference. Like starters. Yeah. There's plenty of stars. I think there's a lot of starters going into the second and third round. I think you can find a lot of, especially like interior offensive linemen day two in terms of like the premier players. You're talking, you know, 14, 15, 16 in that range. So in some years, that might be 26. Some years, it might be 22. That number can fluctuate, but it's not, it's not as deep, you know, of those blue chip type players. But you can find starters for sure. Interesting. And we of course have a lot of Penn State fans here in Philly. You got a couple of interesting players, Drew Aller and Nick Singleton. What do you think is going to happen with them in the draft? Yeah. Aller to me is fascinating. I think there's some wide opinions on him. You take the good. It's really good. And then the bad can be frustrating to

14:29watch. So I think he's, if I was going to put a guess on it, I would say he goes in the third, fourth round in that range, one of those two rounds there. Obviously all the tools, the size, the arm strength, he's incredibly intelligent. I've heard he's crushed the interviews and talking to teams that he's met with. So he's been great in that regard. It's just taking some of the panic out of his game. You know, you got to have a little bit, you know, work on the poise and just get him to calm down a little bit when things get a little busy around him. So that's where I would think he goes. And Singleton, you know, you got big time juice there. Unfortunately, he got nicked up in the in the postseason, but he's somewhat, I think, is in a running back class. It's not very, it's not very strong to be honest. I think we've got two guys, the two Notre Dame kids, and then there's a big drop off. He's probably in that, he'll go in that next wave, which is going to put him possibly in that, you know, same range, third, fourth round. Very interesting. All right, before I let you go, the Eagles, obviously, taking a chance here was Sean Manion. Very, very bright mine was a quarterback, but first time calling place. And the offense is going to be a lot different

15:31for Jalen Hertz. How much do you think Jalen will be able to buy in a just and change up some of the things that he does with this offense? I would think he'll be excited about it. You know, I think that there's been a little bit of a ceiling and a cap on this offense as of late. So I think this opened things up. Now it's going to be important they get some success early so that that buy in, you know, stays consistent and there's belief there. But I think the initial changes that'll be made, I think they'll be excitement there. And Jalen being the son of a coach, like he's always going to be respectful when he's always going to say and do the right things. But I would imagine, again, just my perception of it that he'll be excited of seeing this thing maybe open up a little bit. Yeah, and it's kind of fascinating when Jeff Stoutland departs, how he rose been kind of alluded to it at the combine that maybe there's a tiny bit of traits that change. You know, they had the big, massive. So do you think the adjustment is coming with you know, Jeff Stoutland no longer there? Yeah, I think movement is a little bit more part of it,

16:36you know, but I also think there's only so many starting linemen, you know, when you're thinking about, you know, it's they all go early. And if you don't take one in the first round, it's going to be tough to find one, especially tackles. But so you can get in a little trouble if you get a little bit too carried away with that. There's very few guys that there's not many lane johnson's out there. So it's a little difficult to find. But I do think you can make a case. Yeah, maybe trying to find a little bit more movement there. All right, well, Caden Proctor, we saw it in your mock draft. Keep up the great work, Daniel Jeremiah. We look forward to you on NFL network for the draft in Pittsburgh and baseball season is here. Just just thank Philadelphia for the Phillies, paying basically the entire tab and Nick Castellanos there with you the Padres out there in San Diego. Yeah, no, I was just thinking of the scene and what was it? Dumb and Dumber, where he points to the guy over in the and says put it on my tab. Yeah, that was that was the Phillies on that one. So we got we got him for free. So hey, hey, hey, all you got to do is hit

17:38hit 12 15 home runs and that's a that's a bargain for what we're paying him. And I tell you what, and the team photo, we was smiling. I hadn't seen him smile and the Phillies team photos in a couple of years. He's intense. He's intense, man. I've seen some of those interviews. John, I was like, whoa, okay, you better be on your pees and cues when you're interviewing him. You might have some I'll get it to you off the air, but you've got to have some Castellanos interview stories from yeah, oh yeah, and I loved it because he was a challenge and he's a Philly, chronic guy, but I think he's more of a San Diego vibe at this point than, you know, the Philadelphia vibe. But keep up the great work, Daniel Jeremiah. Appreciate you taking the time. Hey, anybody but the Dodgers, buddy. Let's just keep it alive. We're aligned on that. See you. See you, guys.