Eagles Trade For No. 2 Pick, Eyeing Franchise QB

Story posted April 20, 2016 in CommRadio, Sports, NFL Draft by David Arroyo

The draft order continues to be shaken up as the Philadelphia Eagles have acquired the second overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft from the Cleveland Browns on Wednesday.

Philadelphia will be sending its eighth overall pick this year, as well as its third- and fourth-round picks this year, 2017 first-round pick and second-round pick in 2018. In return, the Eagles will receive the aforementioned second overall pick this year and a fourth-round pick in 2017.

There had been speculations that the Browns were looking to move the pick and with the Eagles showing so much interest for the top pick overall, Cleveland capitalized on it and pulled a deal off.

With the Browns moving down, they have shown that Robert Griffin III will be the quarterback of the future for the Browns. Whether that is the right move will remain to be seen, but who will be their guy at eight?

The Browns will have to be taking whoever is left over of the top prospects and now will have an extra first next year to help the team with the least talent in the NFL. Whoever they take will help, but expect Myles Jack to be the guy. With injury concerns, the second pick was far too high to draft him and by moving down, Cleveland has a chance to draft a potential Pro-bowl linebacker.

But the haul Cleveland got is not as impressive the more it is looked at.  The Browns only gain one additional first-round pick and second-round. For the second pick, it was assumed a team would have to give up significantly more to move up to that position. The haul is truly not that impressive, but the Browns will take what they can get.

For the Eagles, any fans in Philadelphia should be doing backflips. Whoever is left at quarterback will be able to sit behind Sam Bradford and will not be thrown to the gauntlet of Philadelphia immediately. Both Goff and Wentz would benefit from some time to sit, but especially Wentz. His transition from FCS football to the NFL would be eased by sitting.

Some fans have questioned whether it truly will be a quarterback at the second pick, but the Executive Vice President of Football Operations Howie Roseman put any real questions to bed on who the pick would be during his press conference following the trade.

“We’re going to invest in quarterbacks,” said Roseman.

With the belief that Jared Goff will be going number one with the Los Angeles Rams needing a more NFL ready quarterback, Carson Wentz will be the guy at two. At 6’5” and 240 pounds, his size and athleticism will fit well into this Eagles offense. Everything he has shown in his workouts and in college points to him being the best quarterback in this draft.

But this trade will not turn the Eagles into a Super Bowl team immediately. Sam Bradford is still the starting quarterback next season and everyone knows that he is not a quarterback that will be winning your team a Super Bowl. On top of that, Philadelphia still has a ton of holes to fill. Who will be their running back next year? The team still needs defensive backs and offensive line help, so how will they address those needs?

The biggest loser in all of this is the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers were looking to potentially draft the quarterback that fell to seven or move up and draft a quarterback. But now Chip Kelly will have to sit at seven and watch as his former team did what his current team could not.

Crazy trades are back in the NFL and teams are ready to do what is necessary to get the guys they want.

 

David Arroyo is a freshman majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email arroyodavid01@gmail.com

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David Arroyo

Senior / Broadcast Journalism

David Arroyo currently serves as one of two General Managers for CommRadio. David is a former arts & entertainment director, social media director and editor for the station. He has produced for multiple Penn State sports while in CommRadio, has done play by play for Penn State sporting events such as football, basketball and volleyball and co-hosted and produced his own talk show. During the fall of 2017, David was an anchor, producer and reporter for the Centre County Report. David most recently interned at WPVI-TV, 6abc in Philadelphia during the summer of 2018. While at 6abc he was a programing intern and helped in the production of their weekly show “FYI Philly.” David has interned at B94.5 (State College) and Center City Film and Video (Philadelphia). Follow him on Twitter (@_arroyodavid) or email him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).