The Eagles didn’t jump the Cowboys for CeeDee Lamb and as a result drafted quarterback Jalen Hurts

The second and third rounds of the 2020 NFL Draft are officially in the books and the Dallas Cowboys have a lot to be proud of. By many estimations the Cowboys are having one of the league’s better drafts as they’ve landed players that were ranked (by most evaluations) higher than where Dallas ultimately took them. CeeDee Lamb, Trevon Diggs, and Neville Gallimore are all worth being excited about.

Of course, the NFL Draft provides an opportunity for every team to get better and one of the team’s division rivals is doing a great job of that. The Washington Redskins started off strong by drafting Chase Young, he’s going to be a problem for the foreseeable future.

For so long the NFC East has felt like a two team race between the Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles. Philly has done some questionable things to this point in the draft and their second-round pick leads the way there.

The Philadelphia Eagles drafted Oklahoma QB Jalen Hurts in the second round

There was a lot made about the Cowboys virtually interviewing Jalen Hurts, especially considering his interview was the first one that the team formally announced on their social channels. Many people started to pontificate as to whether Hurts could be a possible Cowboys pick with Dak Prescott’s contract situation (you know, that he needs a new one), but the Cowboys were never going to devote a top-100 pick to the quarterback position.

Dallas was never going to spend a resource like that on a quarterback because they have a starting quarterback. Top-100 picks are highly valuable and can ideally be starters (or at least significant contributors) so teams need to be as careful as possible with them.

This is what makes what the Eagles did in the second round so confusing/interesting/weird. Philadelphia handed a four-year extension out to Carson Wentz just a year ago and did so after he fought through the never-ending hype for Nick Foles both in and out of the team’s locker room. That the Eagles would intentionally inject a very similar variable like that against their franchise quarterback is strange at best.

What’s more is that the Eagles were rumored to be among the teams with heavy interest in new Cowboys receiver CeeDee Lamb. They reportedly wanted to jump Dallas in order to draft Lamb but ultimately didn’t because it would have cost them their second-round pick. If they had landed a viable starter with that pick then holding on to it would have made sense, but using it to draft Hurts makes it all the more confusing (enjoyable for us).

Philadelphia could have given the quarterback they are invested in the best wide receiver in the draft to work with. Instead they let their top division rival land Lamb and chose to use the resource they saved on someone that would serve as a direct threat to Wentz.

These are strange time.