The Philadelphia Eagles found themselves with an unexpected hole on the roster after defensive tackle Milton Williams followed a breakout regular season and star turn in the Super Bowl LIX win over the Kansas City Chiefs with a massive free agency payday.
Williams stunned the football world by signing a 4-year, $104 million contract with the New England Patriots on March 10 and now ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. predicts the Eagles will replace him with Ole Miss All-American defensive tackle Walter Nolen in the first round (No. 32 overall) of his latest mock draft.
“This would be the third time in four years that the Eagles draft a defensive tackle, and GM Howie Roseman has historically favored the trenches on Day 1 of the draft,” Kiper Jr. wrote. ” … Nolen is very disruptive thanks to explosive traits and strong hands. He had 6.5 sacks and 15 run stops last season. And while he didn’t go to Georgia, Nolen at least keeps the Eagles’ direct line to SEC defensive tackles alive.”
While losing a player like Williams would be a cause for panic for some teams, it’s not for the Eagles. That’s because they have arguably the NFL’s best defensive tackle and a generational talent at the position in 2023 first round pick Jalen Carter.
Nolen Nation’s No. 1 Overall Recruit in 2022
Nolen, 6-foot-4 and 296 pounds, was the nation’s No. 1 overall recruit and the USA Today National Defensive Player of the Year for the Class of 2022 coming out of Powell (Tennessee) High School.
Nolen played his first 2 college football seasons at Texas A&M before transferring to Ole Miss before the 2024 season. Nolen had a breakout year playing for head coach Lane Kiffin and finished with career highs of 48 tackles, 6.5 sacks and 12 TFL while being named both All-SEC and All-American before leaving school early for the NFL draft.
Bleacher Report’s Matt Holder has Nolen pegged as a “Day 1 Starter” in his pre-draft profile.
“Overall, Nolen has all the tools to be a starter within his first two years in the NFL and has Pro Bowl/All-Pro potential down the line,” Holder wrote. “Schematically, he’s fairly versatile as someone who could line up as a 3-technique in even fronts or play as a 4i-technique in odd fronts.”
Eagles Have Legendary SEC Pipeline in NFL Draft
Roseman and the Eagles have brought in a now-legendary pipeline of players from the SEC in the NFL draft in recent years — players that formed a big part of the nucleus on defense on the way to winning the Super Bowl.
In the 2022 and 2023 drafts, Philadelphia picked 5 former Georgia players. Most notably, Philadelphia used 3 consecutive first-round picks over those 2 years to take Georgia defensive players — defensive tackle Jordan Davis (No. 13 overall) in 2022 followed by Carter (No. 9 overall) and outside linebacker Nolan Smith Jr. (No. 30 overall) in 2023.
Of that group, Carter might be the biggest prize of them all after he had a breakout season in 2023 while earning NFL All-Pro honors and was selected to the Pro Bowl for the first time. Carter finished the 2024 season with 42 tackles, 4.5 sacks, 12 TFL, 16 QB hits, 6 pass deflections and 2 forced fumbles.
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