Jeffrey Lurie has owned the Philadelphia Eagles for almost three decades now, but there is one particular decision that it sounds like he still loses sleep over.
In a recent interview with reporters, the Eagles owner Lurie shared one major regret that he has — not picking Russell Wilson in the 2012 draft.
“[Wilson] is a player we didn’t get, and I’ll always regret it,” said Lurie, per the Delaware News Journal. “It was someone I really wish we had drafted in the second round and didn’t wait. But we really didn’t think that anyone would jump us and take Russell, so that was that.
“It’s very, very difficult to project what you call franchise or what we might call franchise quarterback,” Lurie added. “It just happens … We all have this vision, myself included, of an automatic franchise quarterback. It’s almost nonexistent and when it does exist, you’re very, very luck to have that.”
Philadelphia went all defense with their first three picks in Wilson’s year, drafting Fletcher Cox in the first round followed by Mychal Kendricks and Vinny Curry in the second round. Wilson got picked by the Seahawks in the third round, and the Eagles then drafted Nick Foles at quarterback 13 slots later. Foles did end up becoming the MVP of Philadelphia’s Super Bowl LII win in the 2017 season, the only Super Bowl that they have won under Lurie. But Foles was hardly the stud at quarterback that the nine-time Pro Bowler Wilson was and continues to be.
Interestingly enough, the Eagles were linked to Wilson this offseason before he was traded to the Denver Broncos instead. Perhaps that was Lurie trying to undo what he sees as one of his biggest career mistakes as Eagles owner.
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