NFC East Roundup: Jack To Cowboys?

USA TODAY Sports

Here’s the latest from around the web on the Eagles’ NFC East division rivals.

Eric Edholm of Yahoo! Sports believes the Cowboys will go with UCLA linebacker Myles Jack at pick No. 4.

Cowboys defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli had Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs toward the ends of their careers in Chicago, and he again would have a do-it-all weapon in Jack who can pair with Sean Lee to give the Cowboys two of the best coverage linebackers in the game. Jack also can blitz when asked to do so.

Tim Hasselbeck, meanwhile, talks about whether Dallas should take a quarterback.

The Dallas Cowboys, in the division that they play in, may not be – and most likely aren’t – picking this high again next year. And Tony Romo is a year older and potentially another year with an injury. Having said that, if you’re doing that, this idea that everything is gonna be perfect with Carson Wentz learning behind Tony Romo and they’re gonna hold hands and skip to the meeting room is just not realistic. The truth of the matter is you’re punting on 2016 if you draft Carson Wentz that high, or Jared Goff that high. I think it’s more likely that it happens considering the owner is the GM. It’s a winnable division and if you get into the tournament with Tony Romo as your quarterback, you’ve got a good shot.

Don Banks of SI.com thinks the Giants will go with Notre Dame tackle Ronnie Stanley at 10.

It’s not the sexiest pick, and the Giants are probably hoping that Elliott falls to the 10 spot. But an old-school approach works for New York, especially after going on that huge defensive spending spree in free agency. Stanley is a top-10 talent and he’d help solidify one of the Giants’ weakest links in recent years. With Stanley and last year’s first-rounder Ereck Flowers on board, new head coach Ben McAdoo should have his tackle combination established for years to come, and that helps out Eli Manning’s game.

Ebenezer Samuel of the Daily News writes that Steve Spagnuolo was a little disappointed by the Gaints’ hiring of Ben McAdoo as head coach.

This isn’t exactly the way Steve Spagnuolo wanted things to go. But they could be a lot worse, too.

The Giants’ second-year defensive coordinator had visions of a different future back in January, when Tom Coughlin stepped down. Spagnuolo was among the first to interview for the vacated head coaching job, hoping to run the team.

But the task of replacing Coughlin went to Ben McAdoo.

“I’m not going to lie to you,” Spagnuolo said Friday. “I was disappointed I wasn’t the guy . . . but I’m not giving up on my dream of being a head coach.”

Spagnuolo paused.

“But I like Ben a lot,” he added. “It was two-fold. It didn’t happen, so it was a disappointment. But it’s always nice to be wanted.”

As for Washington, Banks sees  Alabama linebacker Reggie Ragland being the 21st pick.

One way or another, Jay Gruden’s team has to get better on run defense. Washington finished 31st in the league with 4.8 yards per carry allowed, then got gouged by the Packers on the ground in the playoffs. Ragland is a physical, aggressive presence at inside linebacker, and he’d add a stout tackler to Washington’s second line of defense. A defensive tackle like Baylor’s Andrew Billings or Alabama’s A’Shawn Robinson makes plenty of sense in upgrading the run defense as well.

CSN’s Rich Tandler on why GM Scot McCloughan brought in veteran tight end Vernon Davis.

Less than an hour after I hit the “publish” button on this post about how Scot McCloughan is operating a lot like Packers GM Ted Thompson the news that the Redskins had signed 32-year-old tight end Vernon Davis broke. That was a decidedly un-Thompson like move. So why did McCloughan do it?

For one thing, tight ends are become scarce these days. Spread offenses don’t use them and so the number of quality tight ends coming out of the college ranks seems to shrink every year. McCloughan undoubtedly would rather obtain tight end depth through the draft but it’s possible that he has looked at all of the prospects and decided that the chances of landing one he wants in a place in the draft where he could be the best available player were extremely slim.

It’s also important that McCloughan knows Davis well. He drafted him in San Francisco in 2006. One of the things that McCloughan said that he didn’t like about signing free agents is that you didn’t know how they will fit in the locker room. McCloughan worked with Davis for five years so he knows that the player will fit right in to the Redskins’ culture.