| 2012 Philadelphia Eagles Draft: Expect at Least 3 Senior Bowl Players Drafted |
| By Dave Stoessel January 24, 2012 www.eaglesaddict.com If you want a good list of college prospects that the Philadelphia Eagles will choose from in the 2012 NFL Draft, look no further than the 2012 Senior Bowl rosters. If Andy Reid's draft history is any indication, expect the Eagles to pick at least three players from this group of prospects. The annual Senior Bowl is almost like a mini combine in the sense that numerous NFL scouts and coaches descend down to Mobile, Alabama for an up-close and personal look at some of the best prospects in college football. The event lasts an entire week and are full of practices that ultimately lead to a game between the North and South. Coaches and scouts have this time to evaluate players in practice drills designed to see how they match up against other elite-level players. After looking at all 13 drafts of the Andy Reid era, the Senior Bowl is certainly an area that the Eagles seem to focus on for draft prospects. This is especially true for the past two drafts led by Howie Roseman as the General Manager. Out of 116 total draft picks under Andy Reid, 47 of them were on the Senior Bowl roster that year. That's a whopping 40% of his draft picks and makes for an average of between three to four players per draft. Furthermore, if you just look at the past two years with Howie Roseman, the Eagles used 11 of their 24 draft picks on Senior Bowl players, including their first and second rounders in each draft. That's darn near 50% of their total haul! If you want to go further inside the numbers here, out of the 47 draft picks who were on the Senior Bowl rosters, 36 players were drafted between rounds one and four. That indicates that the Eagles tend to use their more valuable draft picks on these players. Here is the list of Senior Bowl participants during the Andy Reid era that the Eagles drafted, including the round they were selected: 1999 QB Donovan McNabb - 1st LB Barry Gardner - 2nd OL Doug Brzezinski - 3rd WR Na Brown - 4th DB Damon Moore - 4th 2000 WR Todd Pinkston - 2nd OL Bobby Williams - 2nd WR Gari Scott - 4th 2001 LB Quinton Caver - 2nd DE Derrick Burgess - 3rd 2002 CB Sheldon Brown - 2nd S Michael Lewis - 2nd RB Brian Westbrook - 3rd OL Scott Peters - 4th WR Freddie Milons - 5th 2003 DE Jerome McDougle - 1st DE Jamaal Green - 4th 2004 RB Thomas Tapeh - 5th OL Adrien Clarke - 7th 2005 DT Mike Patterson - 1st WR Reggie Brown - 2nd S Sean Considine - 4th DE Trent Cole - 5th 2006 DT Brodrick Bunkley - 1st OL Max Jean-Gilles - 4th WR Jason Avant - 4th 2007 QB Kevin Kolb - 2nd DE Victor Abiamiri - 2nd RB Tony Hunt - 3rd LB Stewart Bradley - 3rd 2008 DT Trevor Laws - 2nd S Quintin Demps - 4th OL Mike McGlynn - 4th 2009 DB Macho Harris - 5th WR Brandon Gibson - 6th LB Moise Fokou - 7th 2010 DE Brandon Graham - 1st S Nate Allen - 2nd CB Trevard Lindley - 4th WR Riley Cooper - 5th S Kurt Coleman - 7th LB Jamar Chaney - 7th DT Jeff Owens - 7th 2011 OL Danny Watkins - 1st S Jaiquawn Jarrett - 2nd LB Casey Matthews - 4th K Alex Henery - 4th As you can see, the Eagles have picked 18 of these players in rounds one and two, and another 18 in rounds three and four. In eight of Reid's 13 drafts, he used his first pick on a Senior Bowl player (in '07 and '08 his first pick came in round two). We should also note that 14 of the Eagles' 47 total Senior Bowl picks were defensive linemen, by far the position most frequently targeted. Most interesting to me is the past two drafts with Roseman. The top two picks in each draft were Senior Bowl participants as well as the aforementioned 11 of their past 24 picks overall. Will Andy Reid and Howie Roseman make it three years in a row in taking their top two picks from the Senior Bowl rosters? For the fans' sake, I certainly hope not because that would mean no Luke Kuechly, Dont'a Hightower, or Vontaze Burfict. However, we all know how Reid and the Eagles are when it comes to linebackers, especially first-round linebackers. So, I wouldn't be surprised if they again skip that position in the first round this year and take one of the players on the Senior Bowl roster. With that in mind, we might as well take a look at this year's Senior Bowl rosters and take a preliminary guess as to who could be of interest for the birds. However, that's a little lengthy for this article so there will be more to come on that. Stay tuned! |
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