Triple Dawg Dare
Eagles Draft Third Bulldog, Make Flurry of Trades in Final Day of Draft
On day three of the NFL draft, the only guarantee is to expect the unexpected.
That rang truer than ever with the Philadelphia Eagles, who ended the day with three draft choices and four trades, including one for Detroit Lions RB D’Andre Swift.
Executive Vice President of Football Operations Howie Roseman’s trading frenzy began before the day even began. Not scheduled to pick until the sixth round, the Eagles made a move with the Houston Texans, giving up a third-round pick in 2024 to move all the way to the early fourth round for the 105th overall pick.
The aggressive move showed Georgia was still on their mind when Philadelphia took their third Bulldog starter of the draft: defensive back Kelee Ringo.
Ringo was the top corner in Kirby Smart’s back-to-back championship defense. His most notable moment was an interception returned for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter to seal Georgia’s victory in the 2022 College Football Playoff National Championship.
At 6’2 and 207 pounds, Ringo offers size and the potential to move around the defensive backfield as he becomes the fifth Georgia defensive piece to join the Birds in the last two seasons.
In the team’s post-draft press conference, Roseman said he sees Ringo as a long-term investment.
“We have an opportunity to develop him. He doesn’t have to come in here and be a superhero. We have tremendous veterans at the position who can show the way. He can come in a role where he is learning and there is not a lot of pressure on him. We believe in the player and the person,” Roseman said.
With three seventh-round picks to work with, the Eagles used two them to keep moving up, making another trade with the Houston Texans to move to the fifth round.
Now owning pick No. 188, Philadelphia went with a developmental quarterback, Stanford’s Tanner McKee.
McKee spent the previous two seasons at the helm of the Cardinals offense, throwing for a total of 5,274 yards and 28 touchdowns to 15 interceptions.
Eagles Head Coach Nick Sirianni sees promise from McKee in the most important QB traits.
“[He’s] intelligent, really knows his offense and made good quick decisions with the football. We think he has a big arm and is accurate. Those are the first couple things you look at with a quarterback,” Sirianni said.
The Eagles made one final trade, this time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, to move out of their sixth-round pick to replenish a 2024 fifth round pick.
With their final selection at No. 249, Philadelphia selected defensive lineman Moro Ojomo. At 6’3 and 292 pounds, Ojomo was a force on the Texas Longhorns line for five seasons, recording 5.5 tackles for loss in 2022.
“He has 34-inch arms, went to Texas as a 16-year-old, tremendous testing, he has positional versatility. He was standing out on our board,” Roseman explained.
With the 2023 NFL Draft concluded, the Eagles now set their sights towards the undrafted free agent class.
– Benjamin Paul is a staff writer for InsideTheBirds.com.
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