Eagles Draft Preview- 6 Potential Day 3 Steals

A lot of the focus leading up to the draft is on the 1st round, and maybe a bit on rounds 2 and 3. But as we know well in this city, there are great players to be found on day 3 (rounds 4-7). Future Hall of Famer Jason Kelce was a 6th round pick. The Eagles found All Pro LT Jordan Mailata in the 7th. They drafted Brent Celek in the 5th.

To borrow an old-fashioned and now somewhat obsolete idiom, 'there be gold in them hills'. It is not always the Eagles finding it, but every draft there are a handful of golden nuggets ready to be plucked from the river bed.

So who could that be this year? Which players going on that Saturday could end up being starters, All-Pros, or maybe even Hall of Famers? If I could predict that with perfect accuracy, I would not be writing this piece, I would be running some team's draft. But still, let's try to pick through the muck to see if we can strike gold.

Maybe this is my Rutgers bias showing. Maybe I have spent so much time watching the Scarlet Knights be just ok that when someone is slightly better than ok shows up, I get too excited. But I think Hollin Pierce will be a star at some point.

We talk a lot about how massive the Eagles line is with guys like Jordan Mailata, Landon Dickerson, and Lane Johnson. Well Hollin Pierce would fit right in. The 4-year starter checks in at 6ft 8 and 341 lbs, and that is him slimmed down. He was carrying over 400lbs when he showed up at Rutgers, before slimming down to the sleek 341 he weighed in at the Combine.

But he is not just big. Even while playing in the BIG10, and going up against Big 10 Pass Rushers he have up only 5 sacks and 70 pressures over 4 seasons. He played the first 2 seasons at RT, before sliding over to the Left side in 20-23 and 2024.

The scary part, is he still has room to grow. In terms of experince, he is still learning. He didnt start playing football until late into highschool, having played mostly soccer and basketball before that. There is still a rawness to his game that can be honed by the master of the craft Jeff Stoutland.

Stick this guy behind Lane for 2 years, you might have your RT of the future.

CB is a sneaky need for the Eagles. They lost Darius Slay, who played great for them, and they lost the primary backup Isaiah Rodgers. That leaves Kelee Ringo, Eli Ricks, and Adoree Jackson as their other options outside, none of whom are very proven.

One option could be to move Cooper DeJean outside. If they do that, maybe Jacob Parrish could be the new nickel corner.

Parrish is one of the best athletes in this draft. He finished top 4 for corners in this draft in the 40 (4.36), Vertical (37.5"), and Broad Jump (10'9".) That speed shows on the feild too, and despite his shorter height some scouts think he could play outside.

He could allow DeJean to move out, he could move outside himself, or at the very least, give you much needed depth behind DeJean at Nickel Corner.

I am no scout, so maybe I am missing something. But I am curious how a DT with 9 sacks and 70 pressures over the past 2 seasons, to go with the best pass rush win rate for any DT who played at least 50% of the snaps, is not going until day 3. The only downside is that at 6ft, he is a bit small. But when he wins as often as he does, and moves as well as he does, it feels like you can overlook him being a bit short.

He is very similar to Milton Williams coming out of College. He has the production, he has the athleticism, he is just a bit small. And like they capitalized on getting Williams in round 3, they could get another steal with Peebles in rounds 4 or 5.

The Eagles have been looking for a Slot WR for a while now. They tried out a lot of different option, so far, none have panned out. But maybe Tez Johnson would chagne that.

He is not the fastest guy out there, and certainly not the biggest. But Tez just has an insane knack for getting open. His sepration rate was in the 99th percentile. He may not have elite traits, but the guy runs a route better than anyone, and would have defenders in knots trying to track him. Even at the Senior Bowl, he was making some of the best corners in the draft at times loom silly.

The Eagles have lacked that steady slot presence. Now with Dallas Goedert likely going, the Eagles need someone like that who just gets open even more. No WR in this draft gets open better than Tez did in the Slot. He was super high target player at Oregon not because they force feed him the ball, but just because he was always open. Hence why he has nearly 3000 yards and 24 TDs over the past 3 seasons.

If you go to an FCS school you won't get the attention players from FBS schools get. The lights arent as bright, and the competition is not as good. If you are undersized and go to an FCS school, your chances of getting noticed are even slimmer. But the 6ft 260 lb David Walker has still made a name for himself. How? By just producting.

He might be small for a Edge Rusher, but Walker can get after the QB. In the last 3 seasons Walkers racked up 31 sacks, 6 forced fumbles, and 63 tackles for a loss.

Was that just him beating up on weak competition? Could be, but he also showed up at the Senior Bowl vs the best competition. He got the chance to play vs FBS tackles, and he won more often than not. If he is being overlooked because of his size and where he played, there might be some team who makes out like bandits on day 3.

Again, this could be my Scarlet bias showing. But I think Monangai will be a stud. Not only was he super productive vs Big 10 defenses, but he did something better than any RB in the conference, break tackles and make people miss.

According to PFF, he had 139 Missed Tackles Forced since 2023. The next best RB in the Big 10 had 91. He also racked up over 2,500 yards and 22 TDs in that time. He averaged around 5.1 yards per carry, despite defenses hyper focusing on stopping him with Rutgers pass game not offering much of a threat.

Eagles obvioulsy have Saquon. But Saquon had an absurd amount of carries last year, before you add on playing 4 extra games. He stayed healthy, but he has a history of being banged up. They might not get so lucky with his health again, and even if they do, you might want to go a bit easier on him throughout the season. Having another dynamic RB behind him would be a luxury worth having.