With the 22nd overall pick in the 2024 Bleeding Green Nation community mock draft, Philadelphia Eagles GM ablesser88 selects
Jackson Powers-Johnson, OL, Oregon
I know what many of you may be thinking, and I get it.
The center?
Let me make an argument.
It’s no secret that there are major changes going on with the Eagles right now: two brand new coordinators for the second straight year, a new franchise RB, and most notably the loss of two legendary players to retirement. Jason Kelce and Fletcher Cox are both incredibly influential players that this franchise will have a really hard time replacing. But what if I told you we can get one out of the way immediately?
Jackson Powers-Johnson is a beast of a man. Taking a look at any of the tape from the Senior Bowl practices will show you that, as he mauled pretty much every DT that they threw his way. JPJ is a natural athlete with power in droves. He can eliminate bull rushes with relative ease and he has an anchor that is much more advanced than someone else with his experience level. His power at the point of contact is immaculate and he utilizes his 6’3”, 320 lb. frame extremely well.
All that being said, his power is not the name of his game to me. Powers-Johnson is incredible in space. Can he move as well as Kelce in space? No, nobody can. JPJ is about as close as you can get to that, though. He has elite mobility and the awareness to match. Do you need him to pull and block the B gap on a RB Power? JPJ can do that. Are you throwing a RB screen and need your C to get to the second level to open up lanes in the open field? JPJ can do that. Mobility is his best quality, and when you combine it with his power and strength you have the makings of an elite OL.
The plan for the past couple of years have been that Cam Jurgens would switch to Center once Kelce retired. I like Jurgens at RG, just as the team liked Landon Dickerson at LG despite also being drafted as the Kelce heir apparent. He built up good chemistry with Lane Johnson and you never know how a position change can affect a player. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. We had a hole in our OL either at C or RG, and while many want to put Tyler Steen at the RG spot I’m not totally convinced he is a RG. I think he may be better suited as our swing tackle.
Even if you want to move Jurgens to C, JPJ still has a role. He was the top backup option for most of Oregon’s OL positions in 2022 and he has a lot of experience at RG as well. He can play all the iOL positions and may even be able to be a backup RT in a pinch if absolutely needed.
JPJ isn’t a perfect prospect, as he doesn’t have great length and he’s incredibly raw. He has short, stubby arms which may give a slight advantage to longer DTs. He only had one full season as a starter, so he doesn’t have a lot of experience. This may be a problem for any other team, but we have Jeff Stoutland. We are talking about a man who took a rugby player who had never played a snap of football in his life and turned him into a top 5 OT in the league. While JPJ isn’t the quickest out of his stance and he has many smaller technique issues, there is nobody better than Stoutland to coach these issues out of him. Powers-Johnson’s athletic potential makes him the best kind of player to give to Stoutland, and he is so moldable that Stoutland can easily coach him to become the next All-Pro he has coached.
I feel like I should address the elephant in the room: Laiatu Latu was on the board and I have no doubt that most of you are probably yelling at me for not choosing him if you even got this far. Fair enough, but Latu scares me as a prospect. He sat out 2 years and had to medically retire from football for fear of permanent paralysis. I would need assurances from as many experts as possible before being comfortable. I’m also not sure he will be a hand in the ground DE at the next level, he may be more limited to strictly a SAM rusher. He’s a great prospect, but to me he’s a very risky one that is not that much better to me than JPJ to justify that risk.
As long as I’ve been an Eagles fan, the identity of this team has always been to build from the trenches out. We dominate the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. The Eagles should continue this trend by going after JPJ. Whether we keep Jurgens at RG or move him to C Powers-Johnson should be able to be a day one starter at the other, and he will be a mainstay at that position for years to come. This is far from the sexiest pick and I’m sure it won’t be the most popular but this is the guy that I want most to be wearing the midnight green come September.
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