The Philadelphia Eagles were fortunate enough to select Quinyon Mitchell at No. 22 overall, not having to trade up and select a player of his caliber. As the board fell in their favor, the Eagles had the choice of taking one of the top two cornerbacks in the draft when it was their turn -- Mitchell or Terrion Arnold.
They chose Mitchell, much to Dallas Cowboys star Micah Parsons' chagrin.
Parsons, who is on Bleacher Report's draft show every year and analyzes picks, applauded the Eagles' selection of Mitchell -- even if he hated the NFC East rivals got better after selecting him.
"I mean, I'm honestly utterly disgusted," Parsons said with his hand over his face. "How lucky the Eagles are. I don't know how he fell that far, but with this run of offensive tackles and quarterbacks that's the only thing that makes sense. I thought he was a top-15, top-12 talent -- and he just fell right into their lap.
"He was definitely one of my favorite players in this draft. he checked every box. He's got one of the best cornerbacks to play the game, Darius Slay, to mentor him. They still have James Bradberry, who may have not had the year like the big year he had before, but that's still a good quality pairing.
"I think this is a great pick. I think this is a terrific pick. I don't know how [Eagles general manager Howie Roseman] and them get so lucky."
The Eagles don't have to play Mitchell right away, as he can learn as an understudy to Slay and Bradberry. Mitchell can also play inside, so he could slide in as the slot cornerback.
Mitchell being at No. 22 was a massive surprise for the Eagles, as he was projected to be one of the first defensive players taken in the draft. The Eagles were one of the candidates to trade up and get a player of Mitchell's caliber, but as the cornerbacks kept falling they didn't have to be aggressive to get the player they wanted.
"I think once we got towards the middle of the round, we saw that we were going to be okay and get a first-round player at our pick," Roseman said Thursday night. "I think it was unusual to not have action in that room.
"We contemplated -- there were some really good players still left. We contemplated going up, but we kept going back to the fact that we felt like we had a really good chance to get a first-round player at a position of need where we were picking."
The Eagles took the gamble a good cornerback would be there and were right in their observation. The draft board fell in their favor.
