PHILADELPHIA − If you look closely enough this summer, you’d swear you were watching a rematch of an SEC Championship game or even a national championship game.
On offense, there are Alabama players in quarterback Jalen Hurts, wide receiver DeVonta Smith and offensive linemen Landon Dickerson and third-round draft pick Tyler Steen.
On defense, there are Georgia players in defensive linemen Jordan Davis and first-round picks Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith, linebacker Nakobe Dean and fourth-round pick in cornerback Kelee Ringo.
You can also throw in former Georgia running back D’Andre Swift, whom the Eagles traded for Saturday with the Detroit Lions, and Alabama cornerback Josh Jobe, who signed with the Eagles as an undrafted free agent last year.
“We’re just trying to set up a good game in the preseason over these scrimmages,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said with a laugh.
And, oh, the potential for trash talking.
“That definitely depends on the different type of personalities there are out there on the field, but I don’t mind it,” Ringo said. “I’m definitely a competitor, and I do what it takes to win.”
But there’s more to the Eagles’ strategy of re-staging a national championship game between two perennial SEC and national powers who have won the last three FBS championships.
All of these players have been drafted since 2020, with the five Georgia players coming in the last two drafts − Carter, Nolan Smith and Ringo this year, and Davis and Dean in 2022.
Swift was drafted by the Lions in the second round in 2020. That was the same round that Hurts, who played his senior year at Oklahoma, was drafted in. DeVonta Smith and Dickerson came in 2021, and Steen this year.
Before that, the Eagles hadn’t drafted anyone from Georgia since Brandon Boykin in the fourth round in 2012, and no one from Alabama since wide receiver Freddie Milons in the fifth round in 2002.
Now, the Eagles can’t get enough of those Crimson Tide and Bulldog players.
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More to it than just the schools
Many of the players taken from those schools play two positions that the Eagles value most in the draft − the offensive and defensive lines.
This draft was no different. The Eagles came away with three defensive linemen − the two Georgia stars in the first round and Texas’ Mojo Ojomo in the seventh. They added another offensive lineman in Steen, who joins Dickerson, who’s entrenched at left guard coming off the first of what should be many Pro Bowl seasons.
“We want to build a team with an O-line and D-line,” Eagles general manager Howie Roseman said. “And it was important for us to make a statement in this draft, in this offseason, that this is how we believe we’re going to win.”
Sure, it only seems like Roseman sent his entire scouting staff to Georgia.
“I’m not trying to overshadow (the scouts) because they do a great job, but I went to Georgia last year, and I remember coming back, and (Sirianni) was like, ‘Who did you like there?’
“And I’m like, I don’t know − the whole defense.”
Then, comparing the Eagles to the English Premier League in soccer, Roseman said: “I was worried they were going to relegate us to the SEC if we took more Georgia guys.”
Roseman did anyway, trading into the fourth round Saturday for Ringo, then minutes later with the Lions for Swift.
It’s not an accident.
But that logic applies to success at the NFL level, too. Winning begets winning.
That’s something safety Sydney Brown, the Eagles’ third-round pick from Illinois, will have to learn.
The Eagles have established that culture with veterans like Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham, Jason Kelce and Lane Johnson, who have been Eagles for life and made it to two Super Bowls.
Sacrificing is key to winning
In fact, Kelce was in Kansas City, attending the draft when Carter was selected. No doubt, Kelce had heard about the reports of Carter’s poor Pro Day, when he was admittedly not in top condition. It came just a few weeks after Carter pleaded contest to reckless driving and racing in a January car crash, killing a teammate and a football staffer.
Carter was asked what Kelce told him: “He’s glad that I’m an Eagle. He can’t wait for one-on-ones.”
Those one-on-ones between an offensive lineman and defensive lineman are the most intense and highly-anticipated drills in training camp. Let’s just say that Kelce was sending an early message to Carter that he better be ready.
The Georgia and Alabama players are used to that competition because that’s how they get on the field on national championship-caliber teams. And it’s also how they learn to be selfless, to sacrifice stats in order to win.
The Eagles did that last season, too, on their way to the Super Bowl.
Carter, Davis and Nolan Smith weren’t every-down players on the defensive line at Georgia. And DeVonta Smith had to wait his turn behind a long line of NFL first-round receivers at Alabama, from Calvin Ridley to Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs and Jaylen Waddle.
That carried over to the Eagles, where Smith has had to share receptions with A.J. Brown, who set a franchise record with 1,496 yards receiving, and tight end Dallas Goedert, not to mention Jalen Hurts (760 yards) and Miles Sanders (1,269) combining for more than 2,000 yards rushing.
Needless to say, Smith made it work with 1,196 receiving yards of his own.
It could be the same this year for Carter and Nolan Smith working in on a loaded defensive line. Ringo will definitely have to wait his turn behind veteran Pro Bowl cornerbacks Darius Slay and James Bradberry.
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“That’s one thing that we learned at Georgia is that we’re selfless, and everybody is on the same page,” Nolan Smith said. “I feel like if we take that and bring that here to this type of culture, and from what I hear from Nakobe and (Davis), that’s what we’re going to do here.”
Added Ringo: “I feel like in the SEC, the huge thing that all the good type of teams have within their program is competing every single day. Wanting the best out of each other so that the practices are much harder than the games.”
Alabama and Georgia should still be among the nation’s best teams next season, too. No wonder Nolan Smith was asked who the Eagles might take next year in the draft.
“That’s the real question,” he said with a laugh. “I don’t know, man. It’s going to be somebody from Georgia, hopefully.”
Or Alabama. Or both.
Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.
