While I understood that Safety was a positional need for the Eagles’ defense after the loss of Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, it hadn’t occurred to me until recently that the Eagles might take a safety early in this years’ draft. @TheHonestNFL, one of the most informative football twitter accounts out there, brings up a great point in a recent tweet:
As Honest notes, safeties are a critical position in Sean Desai’s defensive scheme. They are huge schematic pieces that can give defensive coaches a lot of freedom in coverage on the backend. This is why Justin Simmons and Eddie Jackson have been such coveted players within the Fangio-scheme. Thus it makes sense for the Eagles to invest in a safety on a rookie deal whom they believe can affect the game schematically at a level Simmons and Jackson do.
However, the Eagles’ draft history strongly suggests Howie Roseman would be against drafting a safety high. In his tenure with the Eagles, the earliest Roseman ever drafted a safety was in the 4th round. And since 2016, he’s only taken 2 safeties in the draft (both day three picks). It’s not like the Eagles have had a ton of stability at the position during Roseman’s reign. In fact, they’ve had major turnover at the position on multiple occasions and the answer has never been high picks at the position. Taking a safety in the first or second round would be an extreme deviation from organizational tendencies.
On one hand you have the “schematic need” for an alpha-dog safety. On the other hand you have Roseman’s organizational history of not spending draft capital on safeties. So what will win? In my opinion, the schematic need triumphs Roseman’s organizational history.
Just last year, the Eagles gave up a first, two fourths, and a fifth round pick for Jordan Davis. The pick highlighted not only Roseman’s willingness to deviate from draft history, but also his understanding that scheme dictates positional value. He would’ve never spent so much draft capital on a nose-tackle if the Eagles’ schematic evolution on defense didn’t dictate the need for one. To me, this pick indicates that the Eagles’ would absolutely be willing to take a safety within the first three rounds of this year’s class, even though they’ve never spent a higher than a fourth round pick on a safety before.
So which safeties are most likely to be drafted by the Eagles? The best safety in this class, Brian Branch, is the most obvious answer. Branch’s film at Alabama is super impressive. He has the versatility to blitz, play the run, and cover from both the slot & deep safety positions at a high level. Additionally, Branch played in one of the most advanced schemes in all of college football. In Nick Saban’s defense, players have to be skilled in communicating, re-routing, and matching zones both pre and post snap. These are all very translatable skills in Sean Desai’s defense.
The Eagles could also be planning on selecting another Alabama safety in Jordan Battle. In Nick Saban’s scheme, Battle managed to finish with a 80 plus PFF coverage grade in all of the last three seasons. Great play in coverage within Alabama’s defense should not be understated. It’s a part of the reason why Eddie Jackson has been such an effective safety for the Bears. Battle’s combine numbers also indicate a very solid athlete. In all likelihood, he’s a 2nd or 3rd round pick.
If the Eagles were to target an ultra-athletic safety early in this draft, it would most likely be Sydney Brown. Brown is a little bit of a wildcard as his short size and poor tackling skills don’t translate to an NFL box-safety, even though that’s where he mostly played in college. Still, his explosiveness is undeniable and warrants him as an option the Eagles’ could be considering. Antonio Johnson is the last option of early safety prospects that the Eagles might have interest in. Although he only rarely played the position in college, Johnson has a lot of translatable skills to safety at the NFL level. His great open field tackling skills and coverage ability from the slot should translate to the safety position, especially within a quarters-style defense. After all, the mechanics required to play safety in the Eagles defense is awfully similar to playing slot-corner in other defenses.