Peter King never ceases to amuse the hell out of me. The guy has become a running joke for the sports blogging community due to his penchant for sharing just a bit too much useless info from his everyday life (“Today I was at the bakery and couldn’t help but wonder why bagels have holes in them?”) and his undeniable obsession with Brett Favre’s testicles. Yet despite all the criticism he receives his incredibly long Monday Morning QB column for SI.com is still usually worth checking out because he has so many inside sources that you are bound to learn a thing or two from it.
In today’s MMQB King takes a detailed look at the Eagles draft and how their approach has kept the team competitive year in and year out. The problem? He gets just a tad bit too excited about it.
A few excerpts from the column:
“What would you think if I told you the Philadelphia Eagles got third-, fifth-, sixth- and seventh-round draft choices, plus half a starting cornerback for nothing in this year’s draft?
That’s right. For free. There are no smoke, mirrors or cheating involved. Only thought and effort.
For moving down six spots in the third round — eventually taking a player they were considering for that 85th pick anyway — the Eagles got filthy rich. I am shocked more teams don’t run their draft the way the Eagles do. It’s almost irresponsible that teams don’t do it the Philadelphia way.”
King actually does explain how the Eagles maneuvered their way into a ton of extra picks for the 2010 draft and there are some great quotes from Tom Heckert in there…my question is: if you are the Eagles why would you advertise this through the national media? If I found a great way to get a leg on on my competetion would I run up to their house and start yelling it out through a megaphone? Probably not. Either way, the next paragraph is where King starts to get a little carried away…
“This may come out the wrong way, so bear with me. But if I were a football fan looking for a team to root for, I’d pick the Eagles, and what they did on draft weekend is a big reason. The Eagles think. They don’t do things the way they’ve always been done because that’s the way they’ve always been done…
But what the Eagles did on the second day of the draft — still unnoticed eight days later; no one’s said a word about it — is one of the greatest feats of trading down and getting value for the future that I’ve ever seen. And I mean ever.”
The one thing I will give King is that the Eagles front office is without a doubt one of the best in the NFL when it comes to managing the salary cap and compiling picks for the draft. While that hasn’t translated directly into a Super Bowl (yet) it does put the Birds in a position to be competitive each season, which is in essence King’s argument.
Still I really don’t think this was “one of the greatest feats of trading down…ever.” For one thing I would say the Eagles trade out of the first round in the 2008 draft was better than anything they did this year…they came out of that deal with an extra first rounder in ’09 (used to acquire OT Jason Peters) and a second rounder in ’08 (Desean Jackson) that directly led to two impact players joining the team. Hard to argue they didn’t get the better of that deal…and just imagine if Carolina had tanked the way many expected them to in the ’08-’09 season. The Eagles could have ended up with a top 10 pick!
Regardless of your opinion of King the column is still worth checking out, just be prepared for a little over-exaggeration along the way.
