Eagles 2018 Draft Class Was Special

With the 2025 NFL Draft arriving in just over a month, much has been made about the Eagles’ recent success in picking players.

Detroit’s signing of 2018 fourth-round selection Avonte Maddox after seven seasons in Philadelphia should spotlight just how good a small draft class that year was for the franchise.

It is also a refresher for starting No. 32 as Super Bowl champions as the Eagles are scheduled to do in late April this year.

The 2018 draft is famous for being the Lamar Jackson draft and Baltimore got the superstar at No. 32 overall with the Eagles’ original pick.

Philadelphia did not need a QB then and was content to trade down after the maneuvers to get Carson Wentz years earlier somewhat depleted the franchise’s draft capital.

The Eagles originally traded down to 52 and gained seven spots in the fourth round (132 to 125), along with an extra second-round pick in 2019, the latter a prime example of GM Howie Roseman exploiting what he has long felt is a market inefficiency in the NFL of putting lesser value on future picks.

No. 125 ended up being Maddox, who proved to be a very versatile player in Philadelphia, playing three different positions, and topping out as a top-5 level slot cornerback for a short period before injuries took hold.

Sensing division rival Dallas wanted Dallas [Dallas Goedert], the Eagles jumped back to 49 to snare the star tight end, again working with the Ravens to do it by sending 52 back to Baltimore, along with a fifth-round selection (No.169 overall), to land a player who was still good enough to lead a team with A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith in postseason receptions during the Super Bowl LIX run earlier this year.

From a personnel department standpoint, the Eagles, led by Roseman, Joe Douglas and Andy Weidl at the time, batted 1.000 in the NFL Draft, landing Goedert, Pro Bowl defensive end Josh Sweat, along with Maddox, in the fourth round, veteran offensive lineman Matt Pryor in the sixth round, and the crown jewel of developmental picks in the seventh round, start left tackle Jordan Mailata, who is already into a second $60 million extension.

Pryor, the figurative runt of the litter despite being 6-foot-7 and 332 pounds, spent two seasons with the Eagles and was still in the league in 2024, starting 15 of 17 games in Chicago.

The historical class will still be producing in Philadelphia during 2025 thanks to Mailata and potentially Goedert. 

With Sweat leaving in free agency earlier this month for a big-money deal with Jonathan Gannon and Arizona, Maddox returning to his hometown of Detroit, Pryor trying to extend his NFL resume past 100 games elsewhere and some uncertainty still surrounding Goedert’s future in Philadelphia as a big-money veteran this felt like the right time to point out how impactful the 2018 class has been.