2024 NFL Draft positions of need: Non-urgent positions

Do the Eagles NEED a quarterback, tight end, or EDGE rusher in this draft? No…but it couldn’t hurt either.

Every team has different needs during NFL Draft weekend and, as you may have surmised from being a football fan for longer than 30 seconds, it informs each team’s board. The Philadelphia Eagles are no different and I have taken the liberty of selecting five position groups that could use some reinforcements from the college ranks heading into the 2024 season.

I’ve already posted the positions that I think the Eagles need to focus on in the Draft, but here are five players, from five different positions, that the Birds could take a look at with some of their later picks. An offensive tackle, a quarterback, a wide receiver, an EDGE rusher, and a tight end won’t be on the top of Howie Roseman’s board this spring, but he will surely have done his due diligence on them anyways. (All measurements are from NFL Combine)

Nathan Thomas (offensive tackle), 5th Year Junior, Louisiana

Measurements: 6-foot-5 and 332 pounds
Career stats: 33 games (25 starts)

Bio: A native of New Orleans, the massive Nathan Thomas was not highly recruited (ranked as the No. 2,476 player in the country by the 247 Composite) coming out of high school. As far as I can tell, Louisiana was his only FBS offer and he signed as a member of their 2019 recruiting class. In 2022, his first year as a starter, Thomas started all 13 games at left tackle for the Ragin’ Cajuns and recorded 25 knockdowns. Last year he started all 12 games at LT, racking up 37 knockdowns, and earning Honorable Mention All-Sun Belt. Nationally, Louisiana ranked in the top-70 in rushing the last three years, and in two of those years they were in the top-40, while they were also in the top-60 in sacks allowed over the same three years.

Scouting report: Multiple outlets that I saw think that Thomas would be best served by moving inside to guard in the NFL, but I think his versatility in being able to play tackle will be an asset for him as a potential Day 3 guy. His size is impressive, for either position tbqh, and if you look at a couple of these clips you’ll notice his athleticism and ability to envelop defenders once he gets his hands on him.

Thomas is a long-term developmental selection that will most likely go in the sixth or seventh round, but he probably has a much higher upside as a guard than a tackle. With an offensive line coach like Jeff Stoutland I think taking an athletic project is one of those low-risk/high-reward situations.

Highlights: This may come as a surprise to some of you, but I was not able to find many highlights of a Louisiana Ragin’ Cajun offensive lineman on the internet and certainly not mixtapes like a lot of other prospects have. The clips embedded above are the best I could do.

Jordan Travis (quarterback), 6th Year Senior, Florida State

Measurements: 6-foot-1 and 200 pounds
Career stats: 46 games played (37 starts); 633-of-1,013 (62.3%) for 8,643 yards (8.53 ypa), 65 touchdowns, 19 interceptions; 409 rushes for 1,910 yards (4.7 ypc), 31 touchdowns, long of 88; 3 catches for 11 yards (3.7 ypc) and 1 touchdown

Bio: After starting his career at Louisville, Travis transferred to Florida State for the final five seasons of his college tenure and ended up winning the 2023 ACC Player of the Year and ACC Offensive Player of the Year awards. The West Palm Beach native was a consensus 3-star prospect coming out of high school and headed to Louisville for a brief, three-game/one-season, stopover. Travis’ older brother played baseball at FSU and then four seasons in the majors with the Toronto Blue Jays. During his last two years with the Seminoles Travis was named Second Team All-ACC (2022) and First Team All-ACC (2023), finishing fifth in the Heisman Trophy vote last year. He owns myriad FSU records including the career marks for touchdowns responsible for, total offense, QB rushing yards, and QB rushing touchdowns. He rushed for so many TDs he’s actually fourth on FSU’s all-time list, regardless of position.

Scouting report: First things first…Travis suffered a season-ending leg injury (which caused him to post the saddest tweet I’ve ever heard an athlete post) which kept FSU out of the Playoff and will keep NFL teams busy trying to make sure he’s fully healthy before drafting him. Travis said “I’m going to be healthy, a hundred percent” when asked about his leg and if he’d be ready for training camp at the recent NFL Combine, but I’m sure any team interested in him will have their medical staff check everything out.

When watching Travis’ highlights you’ll be struck by how damn elusive he is as a runner. He can escape pressure in the pocket on broken plays and he can bust through tiny holes on designed runs to make big plays. He can make most throws you’d want your QB to make, but his arm strength isn’t elite. He doesn’t make many mistakes with the ball, lowering his interceptions in each of his last four seasons while increasing his passing attempts. Travis is smart, tough, and has many of the other leadership qualities teams are looking for. While he doesn’t have prototypical QB size, and he’s already 24, I think that he has all of the traits you’d want in a backup quarterback with the potential to crack a starting lineup in a few seasons.

Fifth or sixth round seems like a good range for Travis, unless his rehab is ahead of schedule then he might sneak into the fourth round.

Highlights:

Luke McCaffrey (wide receiver), Redshirt Junior, Rice

Measurements: 6-foot-3 and 198 pounds
Career stats: 33 games played, 129 receptions for 1,715 yards (13.3 ypc), 19 touchdowns, long of 66; 68 rushes for 397 yards (5.8 ypc), 3 touchdowns; 31-of-64 (48.4%) for 313 yards (4.9 ypa), 2 touchdowns, 4 interceptions

Bio: With a familiar surname to football fans, Luke McCaffrey started his college career as a Nebraska quarterback but ended it as a standout wide receiver at Rice. A native of Highlands Ranch, Colo., McCaffrey led his high school (coached by his father Ed, a Denver Broncos legend) to a perfect 14-0 record and Class 5A state title. After two seasons at Nebraska (where he gained then lost the starting QB job) he transferred to Louisville, didn’t even attend spring practice, and then decided to transfer to Rice.

In 2021 he was primarily a QB for the Owls but he switched to WR full-time in 2022 and won the team MVP award (as voted on by his teammates) after hauling in 58 catches for 723 yards and six TDs. Last year, as a senior, he won the team MVP award again and added a team-offense award too. He was named consensus First Team All-AAC and also earned an invite to the Reese’s Senior Bowl. The youngest brother of San Francisco 49ers star Christian McCaffrey, former Duke WR Max McCaffrey, and Michigan/Northern Colorado QB Dylan McCaffrey, Luke has a plethora of athletic talents that will be appealing to an NFL team.

Scouting report: At 6-foot-2, McCaffrey has nice size for a slot wideout and showed great improvement from his first season primarily as a WR (2022) to his second (2023), which leads me to believe that he can improve even further when it’s his literal job to be a wide receiver. He made a number of jaw-dropping catches on tough throws and shows good hands on more “regular” throws too. He isn’t as dynamic an athlete as Christian, but he has a lot of tools that will translate to the NFL. A future as a slot receiver/mismatch exploiter/gadget-play maestro seems pretty likely. McCaffrey could be a fifth round guy in the Draft.

Highlights:

Brennan Jackson (EDGE), 6th Year Senior, Washington State

Measurements: 6-foot-4 and 264 pounds
Career stats: 44 games played, 164 tackles (74 solo), 34.5 TFL, 20 sacks, 1 forced fumble, 4 fumble recoveries, 1 interception, 9 passes defended, 3 touchdowns

Bio: A 3-star prospect coming out of high school, the Temecula, Calif. native redshirted his first year on campus in 2018. The following season he suffered a leg injury that only allowed him to play two games, but in 2020 he earned All-Pac-12 Honorable Mention during the shortened COVID season. Let’s call that his “practice career” at Wazzu and then the final three years he played can be his “actual career.” He started 37 games in that time period and racked up 18.5 sacks along with myriad all-conference honors (2021 All-Pac-12 HM; 2022 and 2023 All-Pac-12 Second Team).

Scouting report: I try not to let a player “playing well/poorly against Wisconsin” cloud my judgment when evaluating them, but Jackson spent the past two seasons living in Wisconsin’s backfield and I became enamored with him. Last year he forced two (of the four all season) fumbles against the Badgers, one of which he turned into a touchdown, and racked up five tackles. Jackson has a nice combination of size and speed that you don’t find in every defensive line/EDGE prospect, but he may profile as a bit of a “tweener” in the NFL as he isn’t dominant as a power rusher or speed rusher.

Jackson is a project (most likely 5th or 6th round) but one with a high ceiling, despite coming into the league as an older prospect

Highlights:

Ben Sinnott (tight end), Redshirt Junior, Kansas State

Measurements: 6-foot-4 and 250 pounds
Career stats: 38 games played, 82 receptions for 1,138 yards (13.9 ypc), 10 touchdowns, long of 44; 3 rushes for 12 yards (4.0 ypc), 1 touchdown

Bio: Coming out of Waterloo, Iowa, Sinnott lettered in baseball, golf, tennis, track, and hockey to go along with football. He was unranked by all of the recruiting services coming out of high school and was actually committed to South Dakota at one point before deciding to walk-on at K-State. After not seeing any game action in 2020, Sinnott was used primarily as a blocker/short yardage H-back type guy in 2021 in limited playing time. His last two years in Manhattan saw him earn All-Big 12 First Team twice and Honorable Mention All-American (Phil Steele, 2023) once while also being a Mackey Award semifinalist last year.

Scouting report: A versatile athlete, Sinnott tested extremely well at the NFL Combine and is faster than you’d think a man his size would be. That same size would lead you to believe that he’d be useful in pass protection and run blocking but…he has some work to do there. It’s not that he doesn’t WANT to block, he just isn’t great at it. I’d argue that his toolbox of skills is large enough to use a Day 3 pick (round five seems right) on him since his upside is considerable, but he’ll obviously have a lot of work to do before he can be a regular, every-down tight end in the NFL.

Highlights: