The NFL Scouting Combine starts this week, which means we get our last look at the throw some stuff on a wall aspect of pre-Combine mock drafts. Though player testing and the gossip mill from the trade show aspect of the Combine, everyone will have better info soon enough.
It’s getting pretty boring out there in the mock draft world. Nearly everyone is mocking the Eagles either OT Monroe Freeling, OT Kadyn Proctor, or TE Kenyon Sadiq. Here’s a couple that didn’t give them those players.
The Philadelphia Eagles’ Howie Roseman has a knack for landing players who somehow fall down the draft board. If Mesidor were only 21, he’d be a lock for the top ten. Instead, he’ll be 25 on draft day. As demonstrated in previous years, Roseman doesn’t care. He values skill sets and production.
Mesidor is a violent pass rusher coming off a 12.5-sack season on a team that reached the National Championship, offering incredible value for the back half of the first round.
Though they have only done so twice in the last six drafts, the Eagles draft a lineman in the 1st round is never a bad starting point. Not this one though.
Mesidor was excellent this season for Miami, a key player in their national championship game run. But one reason is that he was, you know, a 24 year old college football player. Perhaps his biggest strength is, no pun intended, his strength. Which should come as no surprise since he’s older.
He’s also a DT/EDGE tweener prospect, like his counterpart Rueben Bain, lacking the height and arm length that teams want for EDGE, and without elite DT traits. It’s really hard to see Mesidor, a sixth year breakout (though to be fair his missed all but 3 games in 2023) without elite traits as a 1st rounder.
College football is essentially a professional league now, so older prospects are a reality. But a 25 year old 1st rounder is a stretch. The last 1st round draft pick in their age 25 season was Hayden Hurst in 2018.
Sayre Bedinger, NFL Spin Zone – S Emmanuel McNeil-Warren, Toledo
It wasn’t all that long ago that the Philadelphia Eagles found one of the best players on their roster from the Toledo program in the 1st round of the NFL Draft (CB Quinyon Mitchell). And maybe general manager Howie Roseman will be inclined to go back to that talent pool in 2026 with safety Emmanuel McNeil-Warren on the board here in this pick slot.
The safety position may not be at the very top of priorities for the Eagles, but McNeil-Warren might be the best player on the board here and is a fantastic playmaker on the back end. Over the past few seasons, he’s racked up five interceptions and nine forced fumbles.
Get Vic Fangio another ballhawk for the secondary and keep that unit moving along. Reed Blankenship is set to hit free agency, and even if the Eagles bring him back, the Seahawks just showed us all the value of having chess pieces all over the defensive backfield.
Toledo has become a mini Eagle factory, in addition to Quinyon Mitchell the team has had undrafted free agents LB Dallas Gant, LB Lance Dixon, and S Maxen Hook on the roster at various points the past two years.
It’s a good program to mine. Through location, facilities, and (relative to the conference) money, Toledo is a potential MAC powerhouse to the point that despite five straight bowl games, two straight conference title games in 2022 and 2023 and a conference title in 2022, Toledo fans weren’t upset that head coach Jason Candle left for UConn
McNeil-Warren would be just the third ever 1st round pick out of Toledo. But that’s something that was said last year about DT Darius Alexander, who got late 1st round buzz in April of last year, some of which to the Eagles, only to go in the 3rd round.
The NFL, and the mock draft community, loves to overreact, and after the rookie season Nick Emmanwori had some are going to look at 6’2” McNeil-Warren and project a similar role. But they’re not similar players, and a pure safety in the 1st round is not the kind of pick that the Eagles make. He is definitely a guy to watch for on day two, should he be available.
See More:
