More team building wisdom
With the Jets starting anew AGAIN it might be wise to learn from past mistakes made by former general managers and learn from successful general managers. We are using the Philadelphia Eagles as the epitome of drafting prowess since they are the reigning Super Bowl champions and were 80% formed by their drafting ability.
The Eagles added Saquon Barkley in free agency in the offseason which was the final move that put them over the top. They didn’t make a huge move like that until they had a team they thought could compete for a championship. They didn’t delude themselves in thinking they were that close when they weren’t. Instead, they had the insight to make the move because they did a great job of self-scouting.
Scouting & Drafting
Self-scout your team with a harsh eye
The only way to get better as a team is to have the correct players on your team. Many general managers are reluctant to move a player they drafted because they will be accused of poor scouting by fans and/or the media. The only way to avoid this is to not listen to either group. You need the best players possible, so don’t let hubris get in the way of making your team better. It was Buddy Ryan who said, “If you listen to the fans, you’ll be sitting up there with them.” If you don’t self-scout your team correctly, you will suffer the same fate.
In the 2020 NFL draft the Eagles selected wide receiver Jalen Reagor out of TCU with the 20th overall pick. He was not the receiver the Eagles thought he would be. To make matters worse, the next pick, #21 by the Minnesota Vikings, was Justin Jefferson from LSU, who has since developed into arguably the best wide receiver in the NFL. At pick #25 the San Francisco 49ers selected wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, who has nearly 300 receptions and 25 touchdowns to his name.
You could say that the 2020 draft was a bust for the Eagles, but in the second round the Eagles selected quarterback Jalen Hurts, who this year was named Super Bowl MVP, so it wasn’t all that bad. The Eagles didn’t worry about past failures, so in the 2021 draft they had the 10th overall pick and used it to select wide receiver DeVonta Smith from Alabama, who has more than 300 career receptions and 27 touchdowns.
The moral here is that no general manager is perfect; even Super Bowl winning general managers make mistakes. The key is to recognize your mistakes as quickly as possible, then rectify them with another player. Don’t allow outside influences to make the decisions for you. Don’t just hope things will change for the better. Take the hit, then correct the mistake. Of course, if you make too many mistakes, they show you the door.
Drafting/Scouting
The two go together, since you can’t make the right draft selections if you don’t scout well. Even if you do scout well you can err by not prioritizing your needs as a team. You could have the 5 best wide receivers in the NFL, but they are worthless unless you have a capable quarterback and a quality offensive line to protect him. Knowing where to develop your team goes back to self-scouting.
You can have a successful draft even when you don’t have many picks. The Eagles in 2018 had the #32 pick coming off their Super Bowl win. They traded that pick to the Baltimore Ravens, who turned it into Lamar Jackson, for the No. 52 overall pick, a swap of fourth round picks and a 2019 second round pick. The Eagles had no third round pick after they traded it to the Buffalo Bills the previous preseason for cornerback Ronald Darby.
The Eagles then traded #52 and a fifth round pick to select tight end Dallas Goedert.
The Eagles still had two fourth round picks, which they turned into defensive back Avonte Maddox, who has been a solid slot corner when healthy, and Josh Sweat who has 43 career sacks. The Eagles then drafted offensive lineman Matt Pryor in the sixth round. Pryor played 15 games as a guard in 2019 before being traded to the Colts for a draft pick.
In the seventh round the Eagles went outside the conventional box and selected a Samoan rugby player, Jordan Mailata. Mailata is 6’ 8” 366 lbs and was a player who had upside but needed to be developed. In 2024 Mailata was ranked the #1 offensive tackle out of 141 offensive tackles in the NFL by PFF. He graded out #2 in pass blocking and #1 in run blocking. It took some time, but Mailata was worth the investment of time and energy. Howie Roseman used his intuition that a seventh round pick might turn into something, and he hit gold.
In 2021, after the Eagles drafted DeVonta Smith in 2021 at #10, they picked up a mauling interior offensive lineman, Landon Dickerson from Alabama, with pick #37. Dickerson dropped to the second round due to a knee injury he suffered in the college playoffs. Dickerson was so beloved by his teammates that they ALL came on the field as Dickerson was being put on the stretcher. Each player (even the ones who were in street clothes watching) came over to tap the leader of the offensive line before he left the field. The Eagles would have to wait to get Dickerson on the field, but the devotion his teammates showed was a testament to Dickerson’s character and leadership.
In 2022 The Eagles used the 13th pick to take massive defensive tackle Jordan Davis, then took another offensive lineman, Cam Jurgens from Nebraska, at #51.
In 2023 the Eagles drafted another monster defensive tackle in Jalen Carter at #9, then moved up in the draft to snag defensive end Nolan Smith, who has speed and quickness. They added a backup offensive tackle, Tyler Steen from Alabama, in the third round, who took over for Mekhi Becton at guard in the Super Bowl without missing a beat. In the seventh round Roseman picked a developmental defensive end Moro Ojomo out of Texas, even though he had already selected Nolan Smith at #30. Ojomo had 2 tackles including a tackle for loss in the Super Bowl, so he has a future ahead of himself.
The Eagles now have young talented players on both sides of the line with capable backups who could become starters if the Eagles can’t afford to keep them all when they need new contracts.
The Eagles didn’t overpay for an aging Haason Reddick, but instead unloaded him on the New York Jets, and received a premium draft pick in return. The Eagles were all in to win the Super Bowl, but they still had the sanity not to let a single player ransom them into a contract they didn’t want. Instead, the Jets overpaid Reddick. They received one sack with 14 combined tackles in 10 games, all for a third round pick.
The Eagles were not always this intelligent in drafting players. Howie Roseman has been with the Eagles for two and a half decades, so it took a while to figure out what to do. The good thing about this is the Jets can start prioritizing their positions right away. Build the team from the inside out while making smart decisions along the way.
You can’t build a team with free agents trying to win the back pages of the New York newspapers. If you are successful those things will take care of themselves.