Philadelphia Eagles: Cornerback Must Be Primary Focus of 2017 NFL Draft

The Philadelphia Eagles need to take a cornerback in the first round of the 2017 NFL Draft.

As we get closer to the 2017 NFL Draft, the debate for which position and player the Philadelphia Eagles should select in the first round is heating up. Howie Roseman and company attacked free agency in 2017, filling a major hole in their roster: wide receiver. First, they signed former San Francisco 49ers deep-threat Torrey Smith. Smith will be an asset for the offense in stretching the field vertically, but the Eagles still lacked a true No. 1 wide receiver.

That is why they then signed Alshon Jeffery, the former Chicago Bears wide receiver. Jeffery will give the offense the true No. 1 it needed to progress, however, there are still more holes that need to be filled in the 2017 NFL Draft. Wide receiver was a big hole, which they filled. They also needed to sure up their offensive line, which they did when they signed Chance Warmack and re-signed Stefen Wisniewski.

The Eagles obviously needed to go out and get 2016 first-round pick and franchise quarterback Carson Wentz some weapons, but they left their biggest hole open: cornerback. That hole has sparked a ton of debate on whether or not the Eagles should target a cornerback with the 14th overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft.

Outside of cornerback, the Eagles have a glaring hole at running back. Ryan Mathews ran solid when he was on the field, but he wasn’t on the field very much (13 games played and eight started). It is clear the Eagles need a legitimate bell-cow running back they can trust, but is that hole bigger than cornerback?

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Currently, the Eagles have Mathews (who will be cut once he is healthy enough from his injury in 2016) as their starter. Once he is gone, the running back depth chart will be Darren Sproles and Wendell Smallwood. Sproles is never going to be a guy you give the ball to over 20 plus times a game the entire season and count on him. He is a great third down running back and will once again be a big part of the Eagles offense in 2017.

Then you look at Smallwood, the 2016 fifth round pick. He has shown some promise as a guy who can touch the ball a couple times in your offense, but at the same time, he has shown he is not going to be a running back you can rely on all game.

So, it’s clear, running back is a huge need for the Eagles this offseason. Is it a big enough need to use their 14th overall pick for the position, bigger than cornerback? Absolutely not. And in my eyes, it should no longer be a debate.

You could argue that the Eagles running back depth chart is their worst on the team, though, you clearly haven’t checked out their cornerback depth chart. As of now, the Eagles starting cornerbacks will be Jalen Mills (a 2016 seventh-round draft pick), C.J. Smith (an undrafted free agent from the 2016 NFL Draft) and Ron Brooks (who ruptured his quad last season and has only started eight career games).

Let me add that the Eagles play all of the NFC East teams twice in a season, meaning they will go up against Odell Beckham Jr. (New York Giants), Dez Bryant (Dallas Cowboys), Brandon Marshall (Giants), and Terrelle Pryor (Washington Redskins) twice a year. So, as you are starting to pick up what I am putting down, Mills, Smith, and Brooks are supposed to try and cover those guys if the Eagles do not address the position early in the draft. And by early, I am talking about the 14th overall pick.

The Eagles need to take a cornerback in the first round and running back should not be on their mind then. If the Eagles do not draft a legitimate No. 1 cornerback in the first round, they will be taking a gamble that will result in failure. Roseman himself called what they were doing at the position a band-aid, but all band-aids fall off and Philly has proved that. Banking on a comeback after the first round to be their No. 1 guy could result in a lot of unemployed people inside the Eagles organization.

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If they aren’t able to fill the hole at cornerback, the Eagles will lose and lose a lot in 2017. Today’s NFL adapts more and more to a pass happy league. Marshall to the Giants and Pryor to the Redskins should give the Eagles even more confidence in taking a cornerback in the first round because they need to cover these guys.

So, unless Sam Hinkie is hiding in Roseman’s office and the Eagles are preparing to tank in 2017, cornerback should be the primary focus in the 2017 NFL Draft.

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