I thought it would be an interesting exercise to do an Eagles redraft that instead of using hindsight used foresight. Over the years I've often found myself in discussions with other Eagles fans about the reliability of draft prognosticators player ranking. The thought occurred to me to do an Eagles redraft using one of the so called scout's player ranking list from before the actual draft. The way I did this was to choose a draft far enough in the past that hindsight would allow us to judge the actual teams picks vs the prognosticators rankings. Then in the redraft I would always take the highest rated player on the value chart who remained undrafted at the point of the Eagles pick irregardless of the teams needs or other draft picks. I choose the 2008 draft for several reasons; with four years in the league we have a good idea of quality of the picks also the 2008 draft included one of the Eagles best draft hits in Desean Jackson and one of the Eagles most egregious reaches in Bryan Smith.

I choose the 2008 big board from NFL Draft Bible merely because it was the first big board that came up in a Google search that was big enough to encompass the entire Eagles draft. Below is the actual Eagles draft from 2008.

Round 2 Pick 47 Trevor Laws

Round 2 Pick 49 Desean Jackson

Round 3 Pick 80 Bryan Smith

Round 4 Pick 109 Mike McGlynn

Round 4 Pick 117 Quintin Demps

Round 4 Pick 131 Jack Ikegwuonu

Round 6 Pick 184 Mike Gibson

Round 6 Pick 200 Joe Mays

Round 6 Pick 203 Andy Studebaker

Round 7 Pick 230 King Dunlap

Below is the way the Eagles draft would have gone if Andy Reid had the NFL Draft Bible big board as his only resource. In parenthesis after the players name is where they were ranked on the big board.

Round 2 Pick 47 Malcolm Kelly (Ranked 12)

Round 2 Pick 49 Dan Conner (Ranked 15)

Round 3 Pick 80 Carl Nicks (Ranked 16)

Round 4 Pick 109 Anthony Collins (Ranked 39)

Round 4 Pick 117 Erin Henderson (Ranked 42)

Round 4 Pick 131 Gary Guyton (Ranked 45)

Round 6 Pick 184 Josh Barrett (Ranked 74)

Round 6 Pick 200 Wesley Woodyard (Ranked 83)

Round 6 Pick 203 Cory Boyd (Ranked 94)

Round 7 Pick 230 Jo-Lunn Dunbar (Ranked 130)

I have to admit that I hated putting Malcolm Kelly in there because it must have been pretty obvious how bad his knee was to the rest of the NFL by the time the draft rolled around but I stuck to my original parameters. I also would not trade the services of Desean Jackson for anything. But even those who pooh-pooh predraft value charts and big boards would have to admit this would have been a good draft. When you look at it the only pick that keeps this from being a much better draft than the Eagles actually made is the Desean Jackson pick.