The Eagles might not have seen Super Bowl cornerstones when they drafted TCU tackle Halapoulivaati Vaitai and LSU cornerback Jalen Mills in the fifth and seventh rounds, respectively, in 2016. But they did see something.
As one Philly staffer says, “These draft picks, they’re like your kids.”
You always see something you love. In “Big V” it was a gigantic frame with athleticism to boot. With Mills, it was competitiveness, instinctiveness, versatility, plus the fact that he’d practiced against stars like Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham as a collegian, on top of playing in the SEC.
The year the Eagles took that pair, they were depleted of picks by the Carson Wentz deal, and so Philly’s 2016 class was seen, effectively, as Wentz or bust.