The Philadelphia Eagles have a fair amount of needs on defense this offseason after 5 of their starters joined other teams in free agency. One the biggest and most under-talked about needs for this defense is the defensive tackle position. I’ve seen too many Eagles fans automatically grant Jordan Davis as the replacement to Javon Hargrave, when Davis plays a completely different position—Nose Tackle—than Hargrave. Also, the expectation that Milton Williams will immediately fill into Javon Hargrave’s role is unrealistic. They need new defensive tackles.
And considering the fact that the Eagles did not add any DTs to their roster after the loss of Hargrave in free agency, it seems likely they will draft one high in this years’ draft. Howie Roseman views pass rushers from the interior as a premium position and I expect him to reaffirm that in April.
Drafting the position high seems especially likely after the market for defensive tackle’s skyrocketed this offseason. Daron Payne and Dre’mont Jones, two solid players, got paid like superstars, and Jeffrey Simmons is going to get paid a king’s ransom sooner rather than later. The high price for this premium position makes it a better surplus-move to draft one instead of sign one. And if the league is showing that they value the position this much in free-agency, they probably are going to do the same in this year’s draft.
So which defensive tackle might the Eagles draft? There are two players I can see the Eagles drafting if they happen to fall to them. The obvious one is Jalen Carter, and the less obvious one is Calijah Kancey.
Beyond filling an important need for the Eagles, there is a lot to like about Calijah Kancey. For one, he would fit into Philadelphia’s defense a lot like Hargrave did in recent years. Being a sub-par run stopper (like Hargrave), he will likely enter the game on third down and wreak havoc on guards with his elite first step quickness.
The elite first step doesn’t just show up on film. At this year’s combine, Kancey posted a 4.67 forty-yard dash, which was the fastest time by a defensive tackle in the last twenty years. Kancey also posted a 1.64 ten-yard split, which ranks in the 95% percentile for defensive tackles.
Kancey has also displayed a multiplicity of pass-rush moves on film, as Mina Kimes highlighted on her podcast with PFF’s Mike Renner last month. The ability to plan, execute, and confuse offensive linemen with a number of moves at the college level is a rare trait, especially for an athlete like him.
However, Kancey is abnormally small for his position which can lead to him being a liability in the run game at the NFL level. But Hargrave was still elite for the last two seasons, despite the fact he was a poor run stopper. The Eagles have the infrastructure in place to maximize the talent of a defensive tackle who is elite at pass-rushing and poor at run stopping— They’ve done it before.
In my opinion, between the sheer lack of consensus 1st round pass-rushing defensive tackles, the positional need for the Eagles, and the positives of Calijah Kancey as a prospect, the probability that Philadelphia takes Kancey in the first round seems high.