Eagles 2026 NFL Draft takeaways: Era-high gap between picks with a lot of trades

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Their 110-pick gap between picks No. 68 and 178 was the franchise’s widest since at least 2010, when Howie Roseman was first named general manager. Consider former Minnesota Vikings edge rusher Jonathan Greenard as much a part of this draft class as Makai Lemon. Roseman considers former Green Bay Packers wide receiver Dontayvion Wicks as part of this cycle, too. The success of those trades (and others), along with the incoming rookies, will eventually determine the final grade of Philadelphia’s 2026 class. The Eagles hope this cycle helps prop their Super Bowl window open as much as the five-player 2022 class helped open it. That draft was headlined by the A.J. Brown trade. Four of the five rookies from that class became starters: Jordan Davis, Cam Jurgens, Nakobe Dean, and Grant Calcaterra. If the Eagles trade Brown after June 1, according to expectations, they will receive cap savings to better accommodate Greenard’s four-year, $100 million deal, along with additional capital to supplement the roster. Before analyzing the 2026 draft, it’s worth summarizing Philadelphia’s trades involving it. The Eagles’ deals first started involving 2026 picks when they traded Bryce Huff to the San Francisco 49ers for a fifth-rounder. That 2026 pick, along with 10 others, were packaged in trades that netted the Eagles the following: If Greenard becomes the elite edge rusher the Eagles have long tried to land on a long-term deal, Roseman will certainly consider his trade with the Minnesota Vikings a third-round pick well spent. (The 2027 third-round pick within the deal is projected to be replenished with a compensatory pick.) Lemon, the 2025 Biletnikoff Award winner, and Wicks, who’s averaging 443 yards entering his age-25 season, must support DeVonta Smith in a wide receiver room that could soon lose Brown. Bigsby, who logged 344 rushing yards in 2025, remains the team’s RB2 behind Saquon Barkley. By funneling picks into more-targeted selections, the Eagles are, for now, carrying a smaller margin of error. But don’t anticipate the Eagles to stop searching for roster additions just yet. A full summer awaits. USC wide receiver Makai Lemon was a top-15 player on the Eagles’ draft board. They traded up from No. 23 to 20 to select Lemon for the price of two fourth-round picks. (They also got back a 2027 seventh.) The Dallas Cowboys used the Eagles’ draft picks to take Florida cornerback Devin Moore and Alabama edge rusher LT Overton. Several other players were available within those picks, including wide receivers Elijah Sarratt (Indiana) and Skyler Bell (UConn), but it’s difficult to suggest any pairing of prospects would have offered the Eagles greater value had they chosen to stay at No. 23 and missed out on the 2025 Biletnikoff Award winner. The Eagles have been acquiring wide receivers throughout the offseason in a way that suggests they’re ensuring the passing game doesn’t experience a significant shortfall. Lemon, at 5-11, 195 pounds, offers the Eagles an inside-outside option who led the FBS in first-down receptions in 2025 (50) and was the only Big Ten player with 500-plus yards after the catch. The Eagles’ wide receiver room is starting to house dynamic range: DeVonta Smith, an all-around No. 1 option; explosive vertical options Dontayvion Wicks and Hollywood Brown; now, Lemon. The Eagles also signed veteran Elijah Moore in the offseason, and Johnny Wilson, their 6-6, 228-pound sixth-round pick in 2024, is returning from season-ending knee and ankle surgery. A counterargument to Roseman’s aggressive approach is whether trading back would have offered the Eagles more long-term value. Could the Eagles have traded back and selected Arizona State OT Max Iheanachor? The Buffalo Bills were reportedly interested in trading up from No. 26 for KC Concepcion, whom the Cleveland Browns snagged at No. 24. The Bills traded back with the Houston Texans to No. 28, picked up No. 69 for No. 91 and added No. 167. The Eagles turned the No. 96 pick in 2025 into a series of trades that netted Ty Robinson, Mac McWilliams, Myles Hinton, Cameron Williams and Wicks. Could they have flipped a higher third-round pick into a 2027 third-rounder? Perhaps a 2027 second-rounder? And could they have dealt that pick in the summer to acquire a veteran? This wasn’t a very shocking draft cycle for the Eagles. Spending a fifth-round pick on North Dakota State quarterback Cole Payton was sensible. If anything, the surprising part of this selection was that the Eagles didn’t wait until the later rounds to add to their quarterback depth. But several position groups, including safety, started to dry up on the draft board by pick No. 178. If the Eagles intend to shop backup Tanner McKee, they need an option ready to backfill a room that also includes veteran Andy Dalton. Even if the Eagles hang onto McKee, the 2023 sixth-round pick’s rookie contract expires after this season. Payton is a strong-armed lefty who, at 6-2, 232 pounds, is a dual-threat weapon who could afford the Eagles some dynamism if called upon. Payton totaled 777 rushing yards and 13 rushing touchdowns last season. He said the Eagles drew comparisons of him to Hurts during their pre-draft visit. Former Miami offensive tackle Markel Bell looks like he was built in some football laboratory. He’s 6-9, 346 pounds. Starting left tackle Jordan Mailata is 6-8, 365 pounds. Bell was also extremely productive and durable in his one full season as a starter with the Hurricanes. He didn’t allow a sack in 2025 across 1,034 total snaps, fifth-most in the FBS. The Eagles clearly loved Bell as a prospect. Roseman called him “a passion player for us throughout the process.” With size and length Roseman said was “hard to find” (Bell’s wingspan is 87 1/8 inches), Bell fits the profile of the kind of offensive tackles the Eagles have long pursued to play along the edge of their offensive line. Is Bell, who only started at left tackle at Miami, the succession plan for Lane Johnson at right tackle? How long will his development take before he’s ready? And will he reach the caliber of an NFL starter? He spent the first two seasons of his college career at Holmes Community College. That he didn’t allow a single sack against the nation’s top competition in 2025, including in the CFP national championship game against Indiana, certainly suggests he can hold his own. But with a body composition that fluctuated between 335 and 360 pounds, does Bell better belong to the zone-oriented blocking scheme the Eagles are moving toward under new OC Sean Mannion and OL coach Chris Kuper, or the vertical blocking scheme they are moving away from after longtime position coach Jeff Stoutland’s departure? Roseman said before the NFL scouting combine that the Eagles would add to the safety position “in some shape or form.” The Eagles waited until the seventh round to draft Texas Tech’s Cole Wisniewski, No. 244 overall. They spent their second-round pick addressing their need for a long-term, pass-catching tight end by drafting Vanderbilt’s Eli Stowers at No. 54 — four picks before the Cleveland Browns picked Toledo’s Emmanuel McNeil-Warren, The Athletic‘s third-ranked safety in the draft. By extinguishing their mid-round picks in various trades, the Eagles passed on the opportunity to pick safeties like South Carolina’s Jalon Kilgore, whom the Bills selected No. 167 overall. Wisniewski, a one-year starter at Texas Tech, began his collegiate career at North Dakota State in 2020 as a linebacker. The 6-3, 219-pound 24-year-old is a passionate football prospect who will be aiming for a role on special teams in 2026. So, it’s likely that the Eagles will continue to search for more additions in the summer. The contenders to fill the starting vacancy opposite Drew Mukuba for now remain the same. Michael Carter II, a career nickel, is considered an option along with veterans Marcus Epps and J.T. Gray. Cooper DeJean, their All-Pro nickel, played outside cornerback in base packages in 2025. DC Vic Fangio had experimented with DeJean at safety during OTAs last season. Perhaps that will be part of the plan in 2026. This was an offense-oriented draft for the Eagles that involved two key players in Makai Lemon and Eli Stowers, who should immediately contribute to the new offensive system. Roseman stuck to his aggressive, “no regrets” draft-day approach by leveraging his draft capital in trades that seized Lemon, a top-15 player on their board, and former Minnesota Vikings edge rusher Jonathan Greenard, who the Eagles are signaling as their elite edge rusher by signing him to a four-year, $100 million contract with $50 million guaranteed. They made defensible investments at o-line by picking Markel Bell (No. 68) and Micah Morris (No. 207), which gives them immediate depth behind a starting lineup of Pro Bowl-caliber players, but doesn’t preclude them from taking bigger swings in 2027. I wouldn’t expect the Eagles to be done adding depth at edge rusher and safety this summer. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms