Jeremiah: Wentz Fits Better In Philly Than Goff

Unless you’ve been doing some spring cleaning on the rock you’ve been living under lately, you know the Eagles are in the market for a quarterback, the top two prospects at the position are Carson Wentz and Jared Goff, and that the Eagles have recently been linked to both.

Amid all these rumors and reports, NFL.com’s Daniel Jeremiah and Charles Davis held a conference call with the media yesterday, and they discussed the quarterbacks at length, as well as a few other prospects of interest for the Eagles.

At one point, Jeremiah was asked point blank about which quarterback he prefers for the Eagles.

“In terms of who their preference is between Goff and Wentz, I think they’d both fit really well in Doug [Pederson]’s offense there,” Jeremiah said. “Wentz to me gives them a little more size and the ability to do some things on the move that they’ve historically liked there with Doug Pederson being under Andy Reid. They really value that movement skill. And I think because of that I would lean towards Carson Wentz, but I think Goff — quick decision making, accurate, underneath intermediate — would be a nice fit there as well.”

Jeremiah then discussed quarterbacks who the Eagles could pursue in the later rounds.

“I’ve been a big proponent of Brandon Allen throughout this process from Arkansas,” he said. “I know he’s not the biggest guy, and everybody had fun with the hand size deal and how he got the hand massage and got his hands a little bit bigger. But he’s a coach’s kid. He’s been through a lot of adversity. Fought through it at Arkansas, and really played well last year, I thought, when I broke down the tape to the point where I would consider taking him in the late second round, early third round.”

Charles Davis agreed with Jeremiah’s take on Allen, and added another prospect the Eagles could have interest in in the middle rounds.

“If you go a little bit deeper, because of those movements, because of their body type, a Dak Prescott, who I thought made as much improvement of a big time quarterback of anyone in the country in my humble opinion, has the body frame, movement skills necessary to do that. Being able to handle the weather conditions you’re going to have in November, December, January there in Philadelphia. He played at Mississippi State, but he’s a big, big strong guy that can throw the football, and Jacoby Brissett, if you want to go deeper, from North Carolina State, another guy that’s a strong guy with movement skills.”

Of course, Ezekiel Elliott eventually came up, particularly in regards to how he’d fit in Philadelphia.

“Look, I just think if you look at the Eagles and their track record when they’ve been a very good football team, they’ve had a versatile running back with dynamic traits that could help you on all three downs and they could take a lot of pressure off your quarterback,” Jeremiah said. “I think when you look at Ezekiel Elliott, that’s exactly what he can do and what he can bring you.”

Jeremiah was then asked who he would take if he were the Eagles and both the Ohio State running back and Notre Dame tackle Ronnie Stanley were on the board.

“In terms of him versus Ronnie Stanley, if you’re going to go truly best player available, I have to go based off the grades that I gave him. Ezekiel Elliott I have as my sixth overall player in this draft. Ronnie Stanley at number 10,” Jeremiah said. “I know what people say about the devaluing in the running back position and all that. I just think this guy is not Todd Gurley, he’s not at that level, but this guy’s got a chance to be a Pro Bowl running back for a long period of time.”

Earlier in the conference call, Jeremiah mentioned a couple examples of Vernon Hargreaves’s size hurting him in college, but he wasn’t all down on Hargreaves. He cited the shifting paradigm going on with NFL defenses as a reason the Florida cornerback could still pose tremendous value, despite his height.

“The thing I personally think and when you talk to people around the league, the thing about Hargreaves is, as much as you’re in nickel now, for him to be able to go in there and cover in the slot and even though he’s not big, he can play physical in there,” Jeremiah said. “I think there’s a lot of value to that position.”