[SmootSmack]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

A high-impact NFC East draft column - NFC East - ESPN

Usually, I'm not one to publicly harp on what the national media thinks. Admittedly, privately, I can be very critical of poorly constructed opinions. But, I think there's a double standard going on.

Jeremy Maclin was a player both teams were targeting, and the Eagles were able to use information they tracked down about teams, potentially the Giants, trading up to 20 to get Maclin, so they were able to get up to 19.

Here's what I don't understand: either you like the Maclin move if you don't. If you think he was a top ten player, then the Eagles draft looks great. A top ten player and a first round RB on the first day is a great haul indeed -- but then what do you say about the Giants?

If you think Maclin was a top player, then logic dicatates that the Giants lost out at a chance at an elite player at a need position because they weren't willing to give up a third round pick instead of a fourth, essentially, to get up to pick 18 or so. And no matter how you look at it, the Giants ended up missing on the 2nd WR on their board for their 4th or 5th. That's a really big downgrade no matter what position they drafted at. When it's a position with a 40% first round washout rate, that's really, really bad.

And all of that follows from the logic that Maclin is going to be a great player. In reality, I think he was a very overvalued receiver who will be stuck behind much better players in Philly. I have no problem tipping my cap to two teams who appear to have a great haul in the second round, but after you mix up the first round as the Giants, and debatably the Eagles did, your draft doesn't get an A+. Sorry, that's not how it works.

The Redskins were the only team to get an immediate impact player in this draft (well, LeSean McCoy, probably). And I think that's going largely unnoticed because of, well, because of I'm not really sure.

End rant.

Tripp, did you see this part of the story?

Something tells me you've just about had it with draft grades, so let's go in a different direction today. I've spent the last 24 hours on the phone with national draft gurus, college scouting directors and two assistant coaches in an effort to determine which draft class in the Beast will make the most immediate impact.

I avoided talking to NFC East scouts, in part, because it's rare to find a scout who says something like, "Well, we pretty much blew it" four days after the draft. The consensus is that the Eagles scored highest on in our High-Impact rankings. I granted our experts anonymity in exchange for their honesty -- and job security. They were asked to provide a number between 1-10, with 1 representing an "incredibly low impact" and 10 being a "stunningly high impact."