Now that the frenetic part of free agency has come and gone we can turn our attention back to the draft. Specifically, mock drafts. The mock drafts this year are pretty boring. Which is fitting, because this draft will be relatively boring. There’s no real QB debate to be had. While there are a bunch of good WR and EDGE prospects, there are no “blue chip” prospects at those positions, or at DT and CB. The handful of blue chip prospects are at low value draft positions: running back, safety, and off ball linebacker.
So mock drafters are just churning through the same group of prospects for the Eagles: Alabama OT Kaydn Proctor, and Oregon TE Kenyon Saddiq getting the most attention, with Clemson OT Blake Miller and Arizona State OT Max Iheanachor also popular picks.
So let’s look at a few that are outside of this OT/Saddiq box
Mario Puig, Rotowire – TE Eli Stowers, Vanderbilt
As much as Philadelphia needs to find its long-term Lane Johnson replacement, they should also seriously consider going to a two-TE base to accommodate Jalen Hurts’ limited applications as a passer. Getting Stowers on the field instead of Quez Watkins or Jahan Dotson and whatever else would make Philadelphia better at running and passing both.
I like Eli Stowers. He’s got an interesting journey. He was a four star QB recruit at Texas A&M who was a back up in 2021 and 2022. For 2023 he transferred to New Mexico State where he played under head coach Jerry Kill and offensive coordinator Tim Beck, who converted him full time to tight end, which he had played a little bit as at TAMU, as they already had Diego Pavia at QB. After the 2023 season Kill stepped down as head coach for health reasons for the second time in his career, and Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea brought over Beck as his OC, along with Pavia and Stowers, and later on Kill as general advisor. For all the attention Pavia got, Stowers just as important to the Commodores’ turn around. He was one of the most productive TEs in the SEC in 2024 and 2025.
Don’t get too lost in the weeds, draft good football players. Stowers is a good football player, and a good athlete. He’s still learning the position, and unless he is drafted by a team where he can walk into a starting job, he’s going to have to learn how to play special teams because he didn’t do that at New Mexico State or Vanderbilt.
23rd overall is too high for Stowers, but in the 2nd round he’s good value.
Kyle Dvorchak, NBC Sports – WR Omar Cooper, Indiana
This pick, as you may have guessed, is in anticipation of A.J. Brown being moved. It’s possible that happens after the draft. Brown’s cap hit when traded falls from $43 million to $16.4 million if the deal is pushed to June 1st. They can trade him before that date, but it’s much more burdensome for the team. Here, they take his replacement in Cooper and have a deal with another team in the works.
Indiana steamrolled their way to a national title. They are unlike any recent college football champion.
The 2024 Ohio State team had 14 players drafted that April. The 2023 Michigan team had 13. The 2022 Georgia team had 10, the 2021 team had 15. The 2020 Alabama team 10. The 2019 LSU team had 14.
NFL teams love to draft players from national champions.
Indiana has not been getting that kind of love. Fernando Mendoza will go 1st overall. D’Angelo Ponds will get drafted at some point, as will Elijah Sarratt. Omar Cooper will too, but his ascent up the draft board, months after the season ended and without a stand out Combine to boost his stock, is indicative of two things.
One, there are always players that actual NFL scouts are higher on than the people who cover the draft are, and this time of year the coverage has to catch up to that (and vice versa). This year Cooper is one of those, along with Georgia OT Monroe Freeling and Toledo S Emmanuel McNeil-Warren.
But the other part is that Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti has broken people’s brains. Cignett’s immediate turnaround of a perennial doormat program to the best team in the country has everyone scrambling to understand how. He did this without a generational player like when Cam Newton carried Auburn to a title with just four players drafted that April, one of which was Nick Fairely, but the other two were 7th rounders, and just one pick the next year who was a 4th rounder.
To go 16-0, winning on average by 30 points, in an era where teams are two deep with NFL players, Indiana has to have double digit NFL talent, right? Right? Indiana’s rapid turnaround is even more impressive that it wasn’t done with an overload of NFL talent.
Omar Cooper is a nice player. But he wasn’t a dominant one on a dominant team, and at the NFL he’s a slot WR. He’d just get cardio on an Eagles team with much bigger needs.
Philadelphia takes advantage of a minor slide to secure a versatile defensive lineman. Faulk has the size to play inside or outside, a trait the Eagles have traditionally valued under Howie Roseman.
After losing Jaelan Phillips in free agency, the Eagles needed to replenish a pass-rushing depth that fell to 13th in total defense last year. Faulk provides the power and athleticism to help a unit that allowed 34 touchdowns in 2025.
If Faulk is there at 23, this is such a Howie Roseman pick. Faulk entered the season as the top EDGE prospect. His 2025 season was a big disappointment, but the whole 2025 Auburn team was a trash fire. Faulk lined up everywhere along the line for the Tigers in 2025, playing DE on both the left and right and also getting snaps at DT. He’s a good athlete whose tape looks better than his stat sheet.
I doubt that Faulk will be available at 23 for the Eagles. But if he is, he’s another “how did the rest of the league let the Eagles draft him” prospect.
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