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blazin1 · #1 (**permalink**) March 24th, 2009

Eagles will likely look high in April's draft

DANA POINT, Calif. - It seems unlikely that the Eagles will do another limbo dance in the 2009 NFL draft.

This time, they are more likely to go higher than lower on the April 25 first-day selection board.

Stopped in the hallway during the owners' meetings at the St. Regis Monarch Beach Hotel yesterday, Eagles general manager Tom Heckert seemed to be excited about the franchise's first draft with two first-round picks since 1993.

No one mentioned that the last time the Eagles had two picks in the opening round, they used them on offensive tackle Lester Holmes and defensive tackle Leonard Renfro, a disastrous duo who predated the arrival of coach Andy Reid and Heckert to Philadelphia.

The Eagles' two first-round selections will be the 21st and 28th overall.

"Throw in the 12 picks, and we can do anything we want," Heckert said. "We can probably get up as high as we want or we can sit there and pick who's there, but we have enough ammunition to do anything we want."

Heckert believes the Eagles may be able to forge their way into the top five if that's the direction they want to go, but trade discussions have not heated up.

Speculation that the Eagles will make an attempt to trade for Arizona Cardinals receiver Anquan Boldin does not figure to go away any time soon. A league source said yesterday that the Cardinals plan to have another round of contract negotiations with Boldin's agent, Drew Rosenhaus, in the near future, and if they don't go well, the team may be willing to deal the unhappy wide receiver.

If the Eagles don't make a trade for Boldin or Cleveland's Braylon Edwards, who reportedly is also available for the right deal, they could use their combination of 12 picks to move up on draft day.

Even though wide receiver is always the position of greatest intrigue for the Eagles, the team's positions of greatest need appear to be offensive tackle and running back.

Look at the "unofficial depth chart" on the team's Web site and Todd Herremans is listed as the starting left tackle. The Eagles believe that Shawn Andrews could move from right guard to left tackle, but a team source said last week that the ideal scenario would be leaving Herremans and Andrews at left guard and adding a left tackle to replace Tra Thomas.

There are three tackles - Baylor's Jason Smith, Virginia's Eugene Monroe, and Alabama's Andre Smith - who are possible top-10 picks.

"The top three [tackles] are going to go early," Heckert said. "I think there are some other guys [in the draft] that can play, and in our situation, we've got a couple guys [now on the roster] who can play out there. Shawn and Todd can both do it. For us, offensive line is a lot more important than a lot of positions. If your quarterback is really good, you'd better protect him. That's a big concern for us."

A bigger concern than running back?

"Over time it has been proven that you can find backs later on," Heckert said. "We obviously haven't been great at it. We got Brian [Westbrook, a third-round pick in 2002], but if you look around the league, there are good players taken in the fourth and fifth round."

However, if the Eagles decide to take a running back in the first round, Heckert said, Georgia's Knowshon Moreno, Ohio State's Chris "Beanie" Wells, and Pitt's LeSean McCoy are all good fits.

Extra points. Heckert said there is no guarantee that last year's fourth-round pick, Jack Ikegwuonu, will be the team's fourth cornerback when the season begins. "We haven't seen him do anything since his injury," Heckert said. "When we saw him on tape, we really liked him, but we can't go into the season saying he's going to be our third or fourth guy. We have to wait and see." Ikegwuonu missed all of last season after undergoing major surgery to repair his right knee. Heckert said the Eagles have talked to Ikegwuonu about an incriminating photo that made the rounds on the Internet after first appearing on his sister's Facebook page. "I don't really want to get into it, but supposedly it happened a while ago," Heckert said.

LINK >> Eagles will likely look high in April's draft | Philadelphia Inquirer | 03/24/2009