PHILADELPHIA – The question was asked on NFL.com and it got me thinking. The questions was: Can you imagine if the Eagles had taken Jefferson instead of Jalen Reagor?
It’s part of a series the site’s lead draft writer, Eric Edholm, is doing for each position, listing his top five players at each position in terms of their draft value, a judgment, he wrote, “In short, which teams received the most bang for their draft-pick buck.”
He’s already done the offensive line and listed Jason Kelce at No. 1 on his list. Kelce was a sixth-round pick in 2011, and we all know how that turned out for the Eagles. Somehow, Edholm did not have Jordan Mailata on his top-5 list, but whatever.
Anyway, the most recent position group was receiver, and Justin Jefferson is his No. 1 player on the list. That’s when he asked his question involving the Eagles’ pick of Reagor, who went 21st overall in the 2020 draft, and Jefferson 22nd.
Thing is, you don’t have to imagine it all.
Eagles general manager Howie Roseman quickly fixed his mistake. It didn’t take him long to realize he had made a big one. Reagor’s rookie season featured some easy catches that were dropped and just 31 receptions for 396 yards and one touchdown. Jefferson was a second-team All-Pro as a rookie and second in the AP Rookie of the Year vote after catching 88 passes for 1,400 yards and seven touchdowns.
Rather than hope Reagor could figure it out – because Roseman doesn’t believe hope is a strategy – be began the process of moving on from his error. He traded up two spots to draft DeVonta Smith in 2021 then, on the opening night of the 2022 draft, he completed a blockbuster deal that delivered A.J. Brown in a trade with the Titans.
Problem solved. Neither player would likely be here if Roseman had drafted Jefferson, and maybe the GM is still piecing together the No. 2 receiver spot in free agency or future drafts in later rounds.
There was no need to do that because he quickly noticed his mistake, owned up to it, and moved on, and Brown and Smith give the Eagles one of the very best, if not the best, receiver tandems in the NFL.
