Should the Eagles draft their next backup quarterback?

Welcome to the 2020 NFL Draft roster review! Over the next few weeks, I’ll be going through the Philadelphia Eagles’ roster position-by-position and breaking down the team needs as it relates to the 2020 draft.

First up, quarterback!

The Eagles clearly have their franchise signal caller in Carson Wentz. In his fourth year, Wentz played at a level previously unprecedented in franchise history. He became the first Eagles quarterback to throw for over 4000 yards and the first NFL player ever to achieve that without a single 500 yard wide receiver. Not bad! Wentz’s status is cemented as the franchise guy, but there are more questions than answers when it comes to his backup. Wentz completed his first 16 game season since his rookie year, only to get knocked out by a dirty play in his first ever playoff game. A hobbled Josh McCown came in and the rest is painful history.

McCown played admirably but going forward there’s no doubt the Eagles will need to upgrade the backup quarterback position. Depending on the 40 year old veteran to return next year is a stretch and thinking that’s a viable option is somehow even crazier.The team may be interested in upgrading the backup quarterback group through free agency, bringing in another veteran passer who could hold down the fort if Wentz got injured again. It’s also possible the team decides to dip into this deep draft class for a young player who could develop behind Wentz and potentially step in at a moments notice.

This class is filled with talented passers. Upwards of five quarterbacks could be taken in the first round! The problem with this class, in Philly’s sake, is that it may be hard to get any of the quality quarterback prospects without using premium draft capital. Joe Burrow? Probably going first overall. Tua Tagovailoa? First round. Jacob Eason has been projected to go on day one. So has Justin Herbert. Even Jordan Love will get first round whispers due to his skill set. So that leaves players like Jacob Fromm and Jalen Hurts who will be highly coveted as experienced and productive college passers.

It’s hard to validate spending anything higher than a fourth round pick on a backup unless there’s a crazy drop for one of the “top” passers in the class. After drafting Clayton Thorson in the fifth round last year, the team showed they’re interested in young players to develop behind Wentz, they just picked one who wasn’t good enough to make the team.

Day three guys who interest me are Nate Stanley, Anthony Gordon and Steve Montez. Stanley and Montez are highly experienced while Gordon was extremely productive in 2019. All three are high IQ passers while Montez has an intriguing skill set that could be developed further.

While the team has much more pressing needs across the roster, I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to bring in another young passer to groom behind Wentz who could fill in if disaster strikes again.