Rebuilding isn’t a word in Andy Reid’s dictionary.
Yet after selecting 13 players — the most since 1986 — in the NFL draft this past weekend, it feels more and more like that’s what the coach is doing.
“I would never call it a rebuilding process. That’s not how I look at things,” Reid said. “We have a good nucleus of defensive players, and we know that, but somewhere you have to bring in younger players to replace other guys that were possibly older and moved on, and we think we’ve done that.”
The Eagles drafted nine defensive players, including four linemen, as they look to replace seven veterans on that side of the ball. Sticking to Jim Johnson’s blueprint, the team went for speed over size. The average weight of the four linemen is 272 pounds.
“Even though they’re not the biggest guys, they’ve all got big hearts, and they can move,” Reid said.
