It’s here, it’s finally here, Philadelphia Eagles fans: the 2026 NFL Draft.
All the months of scouting, pro days, visits, and the 2026 NFL Combine have led up to this moment, and soon, Howie Roseman will select the next class of Eagles players in the pursuit of another trip to the Super Bowl.
With one pick, No 23 overall, in the first round, three more, 54, 68, and 98, on Day 2, and four final selections, 114, 137, 178, and 197, on Day 3, the Eagles have a chance to add some serious firepower to their roster, even if many consider this a “down” draft when comapred to the classes pre- and proceeding it.
So, with the first round mere hours away, why not open up the Pro Football Focus Mock Draft Simulator one last time and see what kind of players could be available to the Birds at each pick, cross-referencing their top-30 visits and other publicly available information to identify some players Roseman and company have actually put work on in a final mock draft?
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23. G Vega Ioane, Penn State
Because there isn’t a great chance the Eagles land a true blue-chip prospect with the 23rd overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, it would strongly behoove Roseman and company to trade down with a team like the Arizona Cardinals and hope that a player like Utah tackle Caleb Lomu drops to them at 34 overall. Such a strategy might take some air out of the sails of Thursday night’s draft coverage, but it could bring at least an extra second-round pick in next year’s loaded first round to Philadelphia’s war chest, which, when coupled with similar talent available between 23 and 34, could make for an A+ strategy for one of the better front offices in the NFL today.
But what if a blue chip player does fall to Philadelphia, specifically one the team brought in for a top-30 visit in Penn State guard Vega Ioane, which happened in this mock draft simulation?
Simple: The Eagles take Ioane.
Widely considered a future Pro Bowler guard who has the size to be a reserve at tackle and the football instincts to potentially pick up center, too, Ioane was a monster of a man in the trenches for the Nittany Lions in Happy Valley. He lined up on both sides of the line, pulled in space on zone blocking concepts, and most crucially of all, hasn’t allowed a sack since 2023.
Are the Eagles okay at guard in 2026 if they avoid the position altogether? Potentially so, if Landon Dickerson and Cam Jurgens are fully healthy next to Tyler Steen, but considering that was rarely the case last season, bringing in Ioane now could give the Eagles a backup at multiple positions, including right tackle, at the bare minimum, and would likely send Steen to the bench for Week 1 as they enter the Vega Era.
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54 – TE Eli Stowers, Vanderbilt
Unlike Ioane and (almost) every other player in this mock draft, the Eagles did not bring Stowers in for a top-3o visit. They did, however, attend his pro day at Vanderbilt and may be keeping their interest in his services close to the vest in order to avoid a Day 2 rush for the second-best tight end in this year’s class after watching Kenyon Sadiq’s stock skyrocket since the NFL Combine.
Standing 6-foot-3, 239 pounds, Stowers looks more like a big wide receiver than a tight end and largely plays like one, too. While he isn’t the best blocker in the world at this stage of his game, Stowers has only been playing tight end since he transferred to New Mexico State after a stint as a quarterback at Texas A&M.
Over his three-year run at the position, Stowers was Diego Pavia’s go-to target at both New Mexico and Vanderbilt, and proved an electrifying playmaker at every stop along the journey, catching 146 balls for 1,773 yards and 11 touchdowns since 2023. Stowers is a beast in the open space, where he moves around like a running back more than a stiff tight end, and even presents positional versatility as a “joker” player, where he could kick it to slot receiver, go out wide to perimeter wideout, or even deploy out of the backfield, where his 4.51 speed creates instant mismatches.
And the best part? If Stowers can’t develop as a blocker, most believe he could drop some weight and become a legitimate X wide receiver, where his size could give cornerbacks fits at the line of scrimmage.
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68 – Edge Romello Height, Texas Tech
While most believe the Eagles are going to invest heavily on the offensive side of the ball in the 2026 NFL Draft, they do still have a need at defensive end, where they have had great experience turning mid-round picks into starters in Josh Sweat and Jalyx Hunt.
Can Romello Height be the next in that line? They brought him in for a visit, so the interest is certainly there.
The other half of Texas Tech’s edge rushing attack with David Bailey, who could go as high as second overall in this year’s draft, Height was able to take care of business on his side of the line for the Red Raiders, amassing 11.5 sacks in his sixth and final college football season.
Is it concerning that it took Heights six seasons and four schools to become a double-digit sack guy, with stops at Auburn, USC, and Georgia Tech before finally landing at Texas Tech? Sure, but in the third round, Height fits in Fangio’s defense and could provide great value as a 25-year-old rookie working with Hunt, Nolan Smith, Brandon Graham, and Arnold Ebiketie.
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98 – QB Garrett Nussmeier
The other player the Eagles didn’t bring in for a visit on this list, some may find it crazy to imagine Philadelphia drafting a quarterback in the third round, even with a compensatory pick. They could use a wide receiver, more help on the offensive line, and depth at pretty much every other position across the board, and have three very good options in Jalen Hurts, Andy Dalton, and Tanner McKee as their QB 1-2-3s.
But what would the Eagles do if they traded away McKee in this year’s draft, potentially for a conditional 2027 pick that goes up or down based on playing time? Well, then the Eagles might be in the market for a new QB3 to develop for the future, with Garrett Nussmeier arguably the arm with the highest ceiling outside of the first round.
Once considered a legit first-round caliber player heading into the 2025 NCAA season, Nussmeier’s final run at LSU left a ton to be desired. He threw half as many yards as the season before, and just looked off, with a Senior Bowl injury admission helping to explain why LSU struggled to get much going on offense in 2025.
Now fully healthy, Nussmeier is heading into the 2026 NFL Draft without much fanfare but could return to being the player he was in 2024 if he’s fully healthy and ready to rock. As a result, Nussmeier has the potential to be much more than a usual mid-round quarterback, and as a result, could present similar upside to what Hurts showed in 2019, when the Eagles selected him in the second round out of Oklahoma despite few expecting the team to be in the Friday night QB market.
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114 – WR De’Zhaun Stribling
Finally, a wide receiver.
While the drama around AJ Brown has led some to believe that the Eagles could take a wide receiver as early as pick No. 23, be that Omar Cooper Jr., Denzel Boston, or maybe a player like Mekhi Lemon, if he drops that far, this is a very deep wide receiver class where there will be Day 2 caliber players still on the board in the fourth round.
The top offensive weapon in Ole Miss’ A+ passing attack last season, De’Zhaun Stribling checks almost every box talent evaluators would want in a modern-day NFL wide receiver prospect. He’s got great size at 6-foot-2, 207 pounds, ran a 4.36 40 at the combine, and is coming off of his second-straight 800-plus receiving season, catching 55 balls for 811 yards and six touchdowns for the Rebs one year removed from another quality season – 52 receptions for 882 yards and six touchdowns – at Oklahoma State in 2024.
Stribling can attack defenses down the field as a deep threat, which the Eagles have been looking to add to their offense this year with the addition of Hollywood Brown, and has the upside to become more of a threat on short and intermediate routes, too, where his size and speed could create a unique combo.
If the Eagles liked what Stribling did on tape and during their top-30 meeting, he would be a steal at pick 114.
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137 – DB Jalon Kilgore
Another rare defensive pick, Jalon Kilgore, is one of just two defensive backs the Eagles brought in for a visit, with the other, Treydan Stukes, expected to go on Day 2 in the second round.
A hybrid defensive back who split time between slot and box safety in the Gamecocks’ star position, Kilgore has the 4.4 speed needed to play slot cornerback but would likely be a Day 1 safety for the Eagles at camp, where his 6-foot-1, 210-pound frame would look great in a relatively small group headlined by Andrew Mukuba and Marcus Epps.
Like most safety prospects the Eagles have historically liked – Sydney Brown – Kilgore has some issues with missed tackles, but he makes up for that with his talents as a ballhawk, picking off eight passes with 21 total pass breakups over his three seasons of college football.
Could Kilgore go before pick No. 137? Sure, but in this PFF mock draft simulation, he was still on the board, and if that happens, the Eagles might just be able to snag Mukuba’s long-term partner in crime on early Day 3.
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178 – WR Caleb Douglas
Taking things back to wide receiver, the Eagles brought in five during the predraft process, with Caleb Douglas potentially the biggest steal of them all if he’s still on the board at No. 178 overall.
Another big-bodied receiver who can run fast, Douglas measured in at 6-foot-3, 206 pounds at the combine and was able to get his 40 time under 4.4 at 4.39. Like Stribling, Douglas is a serious deep threat first and foremost, where his speed and wingspan make him an expansive vertical target, but he’s also capable of contributing to the run game, where the Red Raiders made their bones with the 1-2 punch of Cameron Dickey and J’Koby Williams.
Would the Eagles be better off using a late pick on a player who isn’t a carbon copy of their fourth-round pick, instead going for a slot guy who can contribute in the return game like Barion Brown out of LSU? Maybe, but if the Eagels want a big, fast burner, taking two of them makes the chances of landing at least one long-term contributor all the more likely.
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197 – OT Drew Shelton
And last but not least, with Ioane already aboard, why not draft his college teammate, Penn State left tackle Drew Shelton, who came in for the Eagles’ local pro day before the draft?
Standing 6-foot-5, 313 pounds with 33-inch arms and above-average athleticism, Shelton is a native of Downingtown, Pennsylvania, where he played his high school ball at Downingtown West before taking his talents to Happy Valley. A left tackle by trade who played over 1,400 snaps at the position over the past two seasons, Shelton only allowed three sacks for the Nittany Lions next to Ioane, producing a great 1-2 punch on Allar’s blindside to keep the offense ticking.
While Shelton needs to add some functional strength to be a full-time left tackle, which the Eagles do not need at the time being, he was a big part of the Nittany Lions’ zone blocking run game, where he could pick up bodies in the open space for Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen. For a sixth-round pick, that upside is worth betting on.
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