Eagles

Five Takeaways from the Howie Roseman, Andy Weidl, and Nick Sirianni First Round Press Conference

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Apr 30th, 2021 · 9:19 AM EDT

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Thankfully, the Eagles tanked the Washington game in week 17.

That gave them the 6th pick instead of the 9th pick, which allowed them to ultimately wind up with the Heisman Trophy winner and snag an extra first round draft pick in the process. That’s a much better outcome than “honoring the integrity of the game,” getting a lesser haul, while making crotchety and cranky Sal Pal happy.

Now let’s move on to Thursday night’s press conference with Howie Roseman, Andy Weidl, and Nick Sirianni, and highlight some of the takeaways:

1. Not concerned about measurables

Obviously the big story with Smith is his weight. He clocked in at 166 a few weeks ago per the official combine number.

The Eagles were asked about that again after the selection and reiterated that they were much more focused on what they saw on film, vs. any kind of measurables:

ANDY WEIDL: I would say this. When we watched him play, when I watched him play, what I saw was a guy with length and a guy with toughness. You catch 117 passes in the SEC you’re doing something right. You set the SEC record for career touchdown receptions, you’re doing something right. But even more so, whenever his team needed him, he stepped up. The moment was never too big for him. You saw in different situations this year, Jaylen Waddle went down, he steps up his game and showed up in big moments. It was never too big for him. He was a clutch player for the Crimson Tide. Those are the things that really capture the player and what we saw during the evaluation process.

HOWIE ROSEMAN: When we talked about it through the process, just our scouts and the guys who went in there and their feeling for him, and you do a great job leading that meeting, and we have a meeting where we really talk about the guys who have had a huge impact and DeVonta. When you think about it, even as a true freshman he went in and caught the game-winning touchdown in a national championship game. This is a big-time player. The stage is never too big for him.

2. No issues with press/man coverage

If you do indeed look through the film, and hopefully you have by now, you’ll see that Smith very rarely had any trouble getting off the line of scrimmage. He fought through contact to make contested catches. If weight was a problem, it sure didn’t manifest in the way we thought it might. He battled and beat SEC corners, who are some of the best in the country:

NICK SIRIANNI: He’s got great quickness off the line of scrimmage. He’s wiry, he is tough to get your hands on. He does have that quick jab to one direction to move the defender to get him off his spot to get into his route. Even when the guy can somewhat get his hands on, he can get his body off it. So that’s where it really starts with press coverage, is can you win at the line of scrimmage? The other places that correlate to you winning at the line of scrimmage is the ability with the ball in your hands. When you’re good with the football — again, you see this press coverage, and he does beat that, but the other thing that correlates to the NFL is the way they are with the football in their hands. When they get the ball in their hands, do they have that quick change of direction with the ability to stick their foot in the ground, make a defender miss, and continue on. He has that. He has that acceleration when they have the angle on him and he beats the angle and goes, right? So those are the things that correlate into that press man to man. So not only did I see that when the corners of the other team were up in his face, but also when the ball was in his hands.

Good video here:

Take a look at @DeVontaSmith_6 vs press coverage

Route running will always be more important than weight!@ESPNNFL @TorreySmithWR @MoveTheSticks @AlabamaFTBL @RollTide pic.twitter.com/dzAStbVvuT

— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) April 21, 2021

3. an admission of past mistakes?

Martin Frank asked about Jaycee Horn and Patrick Surtain going off the board at eight and nine, respectively. That’s a position of need, cornerback, and Frank was wondering how it affects their approach in rounds two and three:

HOWIE ROSEMAN: I think because of how many picks we have over the next two years we really don’t want to get in a position — we’ve made some mistakes forcing picks and positions, so we’ve spent so much time on this draft and process and so much discussions about the players in this draft that we’re not going to reach. We’re going to take the best guys. We know that if we get out of here — I don’t even know who is going. We may have to go back up and see who is still there, because obviously we’re picking high tomorrow. We know if we don’t get back in the first round that we’re going to be sitting there tomorrow morning and know we’re going to get a really good player. Maybe it’s at a position that can come in right away and fill a need, but maybe it’s just a guy that we know is going to be part of the core of our team going forward as we climb the mountain again.

Interesting to hear Howie say, straight-up, that they’ve made past mistakes doing this. With the way the roster currently looks, it’s hard to force anything, since they need a lot of help, but the openness here is appreciated. Keep an eye on Asante Samuel Jr. tonight. That would be an interesting pick.

4. They liked him right off the bat

The Eagles seemed to identify Smith as a target very early in the draft process. Duh. I mean, the dude was awesome in college. But towards the end of the media availability, Roseman and Sirianni shared some details about their interactions with the Heisman Trophy winner:

HOWIE ROSEMAN: Andy is laughing because I tried to Zoom as many senior bowl interviews as I could, but obviously coach was filling his staff and I was back here, and I was in there for the DeVonta interview. These guys did an amazing job of leading them. Andy remember I said, ‘Andy, could I just say one thing?’ I said, ‘DeVonta, can you fit in Andy Weidl’s suitcase and we take you back to Philly with our guys, man?’ He was just so impressive in that interview in that moment, and then we handed him off to the coaches.

NICK SIRIANNI: Again, just felt like the whole process, everybody that talked about him talked about him the same. Our interview with him was outstanding. His football IQ and his love for the game really showed out when we had our hour-long Zoom with him. Really showed out.

So, again, just feels like everybody was saying the exact same thing. You can’t fake that of who he is because he did it every single time we were with him.

5. A good pick, or making up for last year’s error?

There were some folks out there saying that the only reason they took Smith is because they screwed up the Justin Jefferson/Jalen Reagor thing last year. If they got it right and took Jefferson, they wouldn’t have needed to use a first rounder on another receiver this year, and could have addressed another position of need.

Jeff McLane asked Howie about that:

Q. Howie, it’s very rare that you see a team draft the same position back-to-back seasons, back-to-back years, and this year obviously after Jalen Reagor you take another wide receiver. Why do that, and is that kind of a philosophical shift for you when we’ve seen you so many years look at more foundational priority positions? (Jeff McLane)

HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, I think when we look at it, obviously we got a lot more work to do here (Friday) and Saturday, and it is definitely not shifting our focus or philosophy.

Again, we stuck to our board on this. This is a guy whose grade stuck out. This was one of the top players in the draft for the Eagles. We thought it was a great player and we didn’t want to bypass that to fill a need.

Happy Friday.