The NFL Scouting Combine starts this week, which means we get our last look at the throw some stuff on a wall aspect of pre-Combine mock drafts. Though player testing and the gossip mill from the trade show aspect of the Combine, everyone will have better info soon enough.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s getting pretty boring out there in the mock draft world. Nearly everyone is mocking the Eagles either OT Monroe Freeling, OT Kadyn Proctor, or TE Kenyon Sadiq. Here\u2019s a couple that didn\u2019t give them those players.<\/p>\n
The Philadelphia Eagles\u2019 Howie Roseman has a knack for landing players who somehow fall down the draft board. If Mesidor were only 21, he\u2019d be a lock for the top ten. Instead, he\u2019ll be 25 on draft day. As demonstrated in previous years, Roseman doesn\u2019t care. He values skill sets and production.<\/p>\n
Mesidor is a violent pass rusher coming off a 12.5-sack season on a team that reached the National Championship, offering incredible value for the back half of the first round.<\/p>\n
Though they have only done so twice in the last six drafts, the Eagles draft a lineman in the 1st round is never a bad starting point. Not this one though.<\/p>\n
Mesidor was excellent this season for Miami, a key player in their national championship game run. But one reason is that he was, you know, a 24 year old college football player. Perhaps his biggest strength is, no pun intended, his strength. Which should come as no surprise since he\u2019s older.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s also a DT\/EDGE tweener prospect, like his counterpart Rueben Bain, lacking the height and arm length that teams want for EDGE, and without elite DT traits. It\u2019s really hard to see Mesidor, a sixth year breakout (though to be fair his missed all but 3 games in 2023) without elite traits as a 1st rounder.<\/p>\n
College football is essentially a professional league now, so older prospects are a reality. But a 25 year old 1st rounder is a stretch. The last 1st round draft pick in their age 25 season was Hayden Hurst in 2018.<\/p>\n