-Rather than use percentages or metrics to determine draft success, this post shows a year by year comparison from 2005-2009 of the Eagles against the two most respected franchises in the NFL: the Patriots and Steelers. Now I know these teams are successful and often drafting at the bottom of rounds but the Eagles are often there themselves. Also New England does a good job stockpiling picks and generally has a ton of late-rounders every year. I listed any players I thought were relevant (generally the teams top 3 or 4 per year).

2009: Eagles win hands down. Pittsburgh pulls a fantastic WR in Mike Wallace, but he can't match up to Shady/Maclin. New England gets Sebastian Vollmer who had a great year for them in 2010. But he was hurt in 2011 and the rest of their picks amounted to a bunch of fringe starters

2008: This is the most even draft. Each team got one very good player. Jerod Mayo has 3 pro-bowl years and one All-Pro. Jackson has 2 pro-bowls plus he's a headache. Mendenhall has shown to be a good player who has ran behind some poor O-Lines. I wouldn't be surprised if he made some Pro-Bowls down the line. Overall I rate the players: Mayo, Jackson, Mendenhall so that's how I'm rating the draft: Pats win

2007: The Steelers win with ease. Their linebacking corps was aging and they swoop right in and reload with Woodley and Timmons. Sidebar: If Bradley hadn't suffered that injury this could've been a very solid draft for the Birds. We still can't grade the Kolb pick because he ended up as DRC (former 1st rounder) and a 2011 2nd rounder.

2006: The Eagles have a huge list of players who have spent time as starters, but none has had huge impact. Gocong and Bunkley seem to have found some success but on other teams. The Pats have only Laurence Maroney to show, and he's washed up already. Holmes only had one really good year but he did make one of the best catches in Super Bowl history Adavantage:PITT

2005: To me the Eagles win this one easily. Trent Cole is a star, Herremans is the glue of our Offensive Line, and Patterson is a solid starter. The Steelers also drafted a trio of impact players but to me our three win. Mankins has been great and the Pats got value in trading Cassell but Hobbs and Kaczur aren't special.

-You're never supposed to grade a draft until three years after but in 2010 the Pats picked Gronkowski, Brandon Spikes, Devin McCourtney, and Aaron Hernandez. Im going to go ahead and give 2010 to them meaning that from 2005-2010 each organization took home the best draft twice.

-Notice how hard it is to pull more than one good starter from a draft. The Eagles did it in 2005 and 2009, Pats in 2010, and the Steelers in 2007. Most of the time you're happy to have one quality starter.

-By my count the Eagles pulled out 9 impact players from these 5 years: Maclin, McCoy, Jackson, Kolb, Celek, Avant, Herremans, Cole, and Patterson. Thats pretty good. Also notice only 2 are on defense

-Also we're not the only ones who occasionally have nothing to show for a draft. The Pats only impact guy in '06 was a kicker.

-My point again: Before you bash the Eagles find a basis for comparison

One concession: It is obvious the Eagles success rate is much higher when drafting on the offensive side of the ball.