The Godfather, Ray Didinger, is back from vacation just time for NFL Draft season, his bread and butter.
Joe DeCamara and Jon Ritchie asked Didinger on Tuesday's 94WIP Morning Show which position is the most important for the Eagles in this year's NFL Draft.
"I would say edge rusher," Didinger said. "Safety, I would like to go get a safety too and you obviously want to fortify your offensive line...But I think edge rusher, I really do. You lost [Josh] Sweat and BG [Brandon Graham] is gone. Neither surprising, but the fact is you do have to replace them...Every team wants more edge rushers, you just do, because that's how the game works. But this team especially. If we learned anything about Vic Fangio this year it's that he doesn't' like to blitz...So you need to find those guys and so if you're going to let Vic play his game to his fullest, you need to keep that front strong.
"Edge rushers and interior defensive lineman, man there are a ton of them in this draft...Out of my top 50 players that I have in this total draft...18 of my top 50 players are either edge rushers or interior defensive lineman. That's how strong this draft is at the top of the talent level. That's why I am thinking defensive line, I'm thinking edge rusher specially and there are some really, really good ones."
Last year, Didinger's top player was Quinyon Mitchell and magically he fell to the Eagles at No. 22 overall, which appears to be a slam dunk hit for Howie Roseman and Philadelphia.
Didinger's top guy this year? Edge rusher Mike Green from Marshall.
"I mean I am head over heels in love with Mike Green and look, he's not going to fall to you at 32 [overall]," Didinger explained. "Last year if you remember we had this conversation before the draft and I said Quinyon Mitchell was my number one guy. Well this year my number one guy is Mike Green. And if you're as high on him as I am, you're going to have to move up from 32 to go get him, probably somewhere in the teens. But the fact is with all the draft picks you have both this year and next year, that's doable."
Green, at 6'3", 251-pounds, scored an 88 on his athleticism test at the NFL Combine, best among all defensive ends/edge rushers.
Last year, as a junior at Marshall, Green recorded an insane stat line of 84 combined tackles, 23 tackles for loss, 17.0 sacks, three forced fumbles, two passes defended, and one fumble recovery in 13 games.
Didinger also spoke about the Eagles losing many of their top players on defense heading into 2025, something he is not too concerned about, largely due to the quality of this upcoming draft.
"Mildly, but not tremendously," Didinger admitted. "First of all, you knew it was coming...You don't like to lose good players, that's just obvious on its face, but you knew it was coming. The fact is this team has so much depth and the other part of it is, you have so many draft picks coming. You have a lot of ability to wheel and deal in this draft and a lot of really good players coming out of this draft.
"I am sorry to see some of these guys go? Yeah I am because we just saw probably the greatest team in Eagles history play in the Super Bowl...The other part of it—as much as you say that team is great, and it was, but you understand things have to change from year to year. And sometimes the worst thing you can do is try and keep everybody. We've seen teams in this city do that before, win a championship and then just keep the same cast in place and just say, 'Let's run it back again.' Sometimes you have to change. Sometimes it's necessary and sometimes it's actually good. And I think this team is deep enough, and strong enough and well managed enough that they can weather it. And with 20 draft picks in the next two years, they're in an opportunity to actually get better. But the key is they have to make the right decisions beginning in three weeks with this draft. But it's a really good draft and there are some really good players there."