The Philadelphia Eagles’ Redemption Plan: Drafting Laitau Latu to Fix the Broken Defense

No team had a more public and more humiliating breakdown last year than the Philadelphia Eagles. After starting the season 10-1, they lost five of their last six games and were predictably humiliated in the opening round of the playoffs. Through it all, the Eagles panicked, made some very foolish coaching decisions, and never even showed a sign of fight. If it wasn’t so hilarious, it would have been tragic.

The Eagles are up next in our Pride of Detroit Community Mock Draft, and it will be the job of commenter BigJShaky to turn things around in Philly. Before we get into the pick, make sure you’re caught up on the previous 21 selections with our 2024 POD Community Mock tracker.

With the 22nd pick in the POD Community Mock, the Eagles have selected Laiatu Latu, edge defender from UCLA.

Here’s BigJShaky explaining the pick:

“Our Birds started out 10-1 last year and then things got … weird. Let’s take a look at the big needs headed into 2024.

• Cornerback – The return of CJGJ helps fill one of the safety spots, but our once stellar tandem of Darius Slay and James Bradberry is getting old and less big play-y. Our pass defense finished (checks notes) 31st last year in yards allowed. Whoops.
• Guard/Tackle – Last season’s right guard Cam Jurgens is slated to fill in for America’s favorite future brother in-law, Jason Kelce. That leaves a hole at guard, combined with a cautious eye toward replacing the 33-year-old Lane Johnson at tackle.
• Edge – Although they were not traded for one another, Haason Reddick is now a Jet and Bryce Huff is now an Eagle. Finishing with just 43 sacks (t-20th) did not meet our Super Bowl season standards.

“The run on offensive tackle/guard hybrid types pretty much took that position off the board. I thought hard about CB Nate Wiggins, but ultimately had to go with our higher-ranked player. That is EDGE Laiatu Latu out of UCLA.

“Latu is ranked especially highly by some of my trusted scouts including Danny Kelly (9th), PFF (11th), and Daniel Jeremiah (16th). Howie Roseman values premium positions and is not scared of a few red flags. For Latu, the concerns are health-related after a 2021 neck injury nearly ended his football career.

“Medical issues be-damned, Latu led the country in pass-rush win rate last year and finished with a staggering 96.3 overall PFF grade. Latu combines his 9.34 RAS level athleticism with a variety of “swim moves, cross chops, side scissors, hump moves, push-pull moves, a bounding Euro-step move, a bull rush, and an effective spin move,” according to The Ringer’s Kelly. Jeremiah hails Latu’s “technique, bend, and savvy” but does admittedly note some inconsistencies in setting the edge. A huge way to help our struggling secondary is a more ferocious pass rush. We’ll look at corners on day two. We’ll also have the medical staff on speed dial…”

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Grade the Eagles’ selection of Laitau Latu

2024-04-14 13:00:00
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