The first few years after the Eagles drafted Mychal Kendricks in 2012's second round out of Cal, no one doubted that he was the best linebacker they'd selected from the college ranks since Jeremiah Trotter in 1998.
Kendricks — who has been charged by federal authorities in an insider trading scheme — was a little shorter than the ideal, at 6-foot and 240 pounds, but he was powerful and fast. Though Kendricks excelled in blitzing, the Andy Reid regime envisioned him blanketing opposing tight ends in pass coverage, something that had become a persistent Eagles problem.