GGL :: Team Pages

2025 Philadelphia Eagles Draft Review
2025 GGL Philadelphia Eagles Draft Review The 2025 GGL draft just finished up and the Eagles are announcing their first class of the league. This new league and the new draft skew posed new and fresh challenges to GM’s as we sought to navigate the draft class to maximum the value for our teams. The Eagles were no different. The new draft format put more of a premium on private workouts as they were the only way to get any type of accurate reading on the players true attributes. With the +/- 5 in the bold attributes and +/- 10 in the non-bold attributes, every pick was a gamble if you didn’t have a private workout. Players who were locks in previous drafts could be backups in this one even in the first round. While this might sound like a less than desirable draft experience, my sense for most GM’s is that the opposite was true. A new challenge means new ways to gain advantages and also means more investment on the part of the GM’s. We simply could not put our GM’ing on autopilot and expect the same outcome as in other leagues. It’s still early but I have to think the returns have been overall quite positive. On to the Eagles draft class specifically. We drafted a total of 9 players this year with two picks in the first round. We drafted four offensive players, four defensive players, and a special teams player (channeling our inner Rock Hewko). Another way to look at this is that we selected four lineman (2 defense and 2 offense), and four skilled position players (2 defense and 2 offense). Here’s a look at them with some basic scouting on each one. Round 1, Pick 15- LT-Stephen Garvin- 23 years old \| 6’4” \| 321 lbs. \| Ohio State Initial- 68 SPD \| 93 STR \| 54 AWR \| 59 AGI \| 73 ACC \| 92 PBK \| 79 RBK Final- 67 SPD \| 89 STR \| 54 AWR \| 60 AGI \| 70 ACC \| 89 PBK \| 79 RBK Skew- -1 SPD \| +1 AGI \| -3 ACC \| -3 PBK Private Workout: Yes Initial Thoughts- It was no secret that the initial GGL rosters had one major positional deficiency and it was offensive line. I have no idea how the league didn’t see worse sack numbers than it did. There are some really high-end defensive linemen but very very few high-end offensive linemen. The result of this talent discrepancy was always going to be a run on talented offensive linemen in the first few draft classes. What was really hard was to find the offensive linemen that were actually worst the high end pick. The wider range skew coupled with this offensive line talent deficiency made an offensive linemen a must for us. Why Garvin? There were other offensive linemen that we worked out and none of them had net positive skews. Garvin withstood the skew the best in our estimation. He’s got good athleticism and, for the current talent in the league, good blocking skills too. He will probably not go down as the best pick we will ever make but he could be a starter in the league for a long time. Round 1, Pick 21- DT-Artie Dhamania- 22 years old \| 6’5” \| 302 lbs. \| USC Initial- 65 SPD \| 96 STR \| 62 AWR \| 69 AGI \| 80 ACC \| 74 TAK Final- 68 SPD \| 93 STR \| 59 AWR \| 69 AGI \| 81 ACC \| 78 TAK Skew- +3 SPD \| -3 STR \| -3 AWR \| +1 ACC \| +4 TAK Private Workout: Yes Initial Thoughts- We love our current defensive line! LE-Milton Williams just signed a 5 year deal and is coming off a 14 sack season. On the right side we have RE-Jalen Carter and the #1 DT is Jordan Davis. All guys are elite, particularly Carter and Davis. There was a starting position open at #2 DT and when 1.21 came up the obvious choice was to go DT. The Buccaneers picked up a really good DT a few picks after Dhamania but we are really happy with our pick here. Dhamania has great athleticism and above average AWR and TAK for a 22 year old. He should be a day one starter alongside Jordan Davis. The numbers may not be noteworthy in year one but he really does have good potential in years two or three. We don’t necessarily love using a 1st round pick on DT#2. It’s not a premium position for us. But it just didn’t feel like the premium positions had premium talent when we were selecting at 21. It became necessary to pivot and we feel good about the value as it relates to this class if not to the overall GGL rosters. Round 2, Pick 15- K-Ty Casey- 22 years old \| 5’11” \| 196 lbs. \| UTEP Initial- 51 AWR \| 99 KPW \| 86 KAC Initial- 49 AWR \| 95 KPW \| 84 KAC Skew- -2 AWR \| -4 KPW \| -2 KAC Private Workout: Yes Initial Thoughts- Here’s how we got to a kicker in the middle of the 2nd round: The question driving this pick was “Which player could we choose right now that will have the best long-term positive impact on this team?” At this point most of the position players who were starter quality were gone or hidden within the skew and we didn’t have enough private workouts to unearth those gems. What we are confident of is that a high KPW kicker who could be reliable within two seasons would really serve the team well. The job of kickers is 1) Making FG’s and extra points and 2) To help win the field position battles with touchbacks. We think he can help with both, but the strong KPW can really help with the latter. And this even makes more sense with the new training camp rules, where we can dedicate a training camp spot each season starting next offseason to Casey. We actually think Casey has the ceiling to be a Hall of Fame talent at his position. Once we went down this line of thinking it was a no-brainer to channel our inner Rock Hewko and go after our kicker for the next 8-10 years. Round 3, Pick 15- FS-Marlon Fiedler- 23 years old \| 5’10” \| 187 lbs. \| Tulane Initial- 93 SPD \| 78 STR \| 56 AWR \| 84 AGI \| 90 ACC \| 65 CTH \| 93 JMP \| 67 TAK Final- 93 SPD \| 69 STR \| 54 AWR \| 85 AGI \| 88 ACC \| 64 CTH \| 86 JMP \| 69 TAK Skew- -9 STR \| -2 AWR \| +1 AGI \| -2 ACC \| -1 CTH \| -5 JMP \| +2 CTH Private Workout: No Initial Thoughts- We had a 1st round grade on Fiedler and so the fact that he was still here in round 3 meant that either the rest of the GM’s didn’t see him the way we saw him or the skew jacked him up. From experience, we tend to lean toward the latter. And this was pretty much the case. Here’s the interesting this though, Fiedler post-skew is still going to be a 94 SPD safety and that’s worth a 3rd round pick in my mind. So the Eagles go FS/SS here with pick 15 in the 3rd round. For us, we needed an additional guy in the secondary and would prefer to have them on a cheap, four year contract. This means Fiedler is a great fit. He will likely move to SS if we can afford a position change but that will depend on accumulating enough activity points. Overall, despite his skew, we are still happy with the pick here. Round 3, Pick 21- CB-Al Staat- 23 years old \| 6’1” \| 203 lbs. \| Texas A & M Initial- 88 SPD \| 68 STR \| 51 AWR \| 87 AGI \| 98 ACC \| 59 CTH \| 95 JMP \| 74 TAK Final- 88 SPD \| 71 STR \| 51 AWR \| 87 AGI \| 98 ACC \| 59 CTH \| 95 JMP \| 74 TAK Skew- +3 STR Private Workout: No Initial Thoughts- A word on Staat’s skew before get into the pick. His skew was the exact same in all major attributes we look for except STR where he goes up by 3. It’s a super odd but good skew for us. Now to the pick. We needed anther CB and by this point in the draft needed to choose between good size and potentially good athleticism. Staat has good size but adds to that 98 ACC which we love. In the end he could be a very serviceable player in the secondary. He’s going to lack high-end speed and AWR. The latter is really going to limit him long-term but we are happy to have him in Philly for four seasons. Another draft strategy we like to employ is to take shots at premium positions in the mid-late rounds when we don’t have private workouts to dedicate to them. In Staat’s case if he were to skew up in speed even by just two, he could have been a potential starter down the road. So we took the shot. And even though he didn’t skew up, we are happy to take the risk for the upside. Round 4, Pick 15- HB-Denzel Rivero- 21 years old \| 6’3” \| 236 lbs. \| Michigan Initial- 83 SPD \| 71 STR \| 54 AWR \| 85 AGI \| 84 ACC \| 92 CAR \| 67 BTK Final- 84 SPD \| 71 STR \| 52 AWR \| 82 AGI \| 84 ACC \| 92 CAR \| 68 BTK Skew- +1 SPD \| -2 AWR \| -3 AGI \| +1 BTK Initial Thoughts- At this point in the draft, we are trying to find a player with unique traits that we could leverage to add value to our roster. The guys who are good across the board are long gone, but we still thought we could find unique players to add value. Rivero could be that guy for us. He’s one of the biggest RB’s in the league at 6’3”, 236 lbs. And this profile has been known to translate well in Madden leagues at least for a short period of time. Add to that a really high 92 CAR and we like the value here at 4.15. Round 5, Pick 15- WR-Von Capps- 22 years old \| 6’5” \| 213 lbs. \| Appalachian State Initial- 78 SPD \| 71 STR \| 54 AWR \| 84 AGI \| 90 ACC \| 75 CTH \| 88 BTK Final- 80 SPD \| 65 STR \| 51 AWR \| 83 AGI \| 87 ACC \| 78 CTH \| 84 BTK Skew- +2 SPD \| -6 STR\| -3 AWR \|\| -1 AGI \| -3 ACC \| +3 CTH \| -4 BTK Initial Thoughts- I essentially want to repeat the logic of the previous pick. Capps has great size which makes him pretty unique. His SPD is terrible but if a coach would play at TE at WR, why not play Capps there in a fourth or fifth WR role? He doesn’t quite have the size you want for a TE playing WR but he’s close and no position change is needed. Right now he’s a roster filler, but we will take a roster filler when we are tight to the cap. Round 6, Pick 15- RT-Terrence Rivero- 23 years old \| 6’5” \| 288 lbs. \| Notre Dame Initial- 44 SPD \| 83 STR \| 55 AWR \| 59 AGI \| 86 ACC \| 82 PBK \| 85 RBK Final- 48 SPD \| 79 STR \| 58 AWR \| 57 AGI \| 81 ACC \| 84 PBK \| 82 RBK Skew- +4 SPD \| -4 STR \| +3 AWR \| -2 AGI \| -5 ACC \| +2 PBK \| -3 RBK Private Workout: No Initial Thoughts- Rivero is a roster filler. Breck likes to posit the theory that he is the brother of 4th round pick Daniel. It could be true in theory though I’m not sure how we come to a conclusion on this other than to just choose to say he is or isn’t. If you take away the first two attributes, he could be really good. But obviously that’s not the way it works in Madden. Round 7, Pick 15- LE-Ezekiel Wusu- 22 years old \| 6’5” \| 277 lbs. \| Penn State Initial- 70 SPD \| 82 STR \| 57 AWR \| 62 AGI \| 69 ACC \| 71 TAK Final- 70 SPD \| 79 STR \| 57 AWR \| 59 AGI \| 71 ACC \| 73 TAK Skew- -3 STR \| -3 AGI \| +2 ACC \| +2 TAK Private Workout: No Initial Thoughts- The final piece to the 2025 Eagles draft class is Ezekiel Wusu. He has unremarkable attributes as a player but he will be a very inexpensive #4 DE and that makes him worth something. I don’t think he has any redeemable attribute. He did attend Penn State so that’s about the only positive thing that I can say about him. It will be really fun to look back on this draft class and trace how significant each player was to the overall trajectory of the team. We have high hopes for the first three picks, and the second and third in particular. On to the preseason.
Forum Discussion (by N_Wintermute on 02/28/2025)	Replies - 0 :: Views - 20

All Team News Stories