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Philadelphia Eagles general manager Howie Roseman. Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Eagles must do better with compensatory picks

By Bruce Ewing | Last updated 1/24/24

According to Nick Korte of overthecap.com, the Philadelphia Eagles will receive a third and three fifth-round compensatory picks in the 2024 NFL Draft. If only they had a better history with those fifth-round picks.

While the jury is still out on the Eagles' recent third-round selections (Sydney Brown, Nakobe Dean, Milton Williams), Philadelphia has struggled to find talent in later rounds. Aside from DE Trent Cole in 2005 and OG Halapoulivaati Vaitai in 2016, the fifth round hasn’t been good for the team.

Here’s a look at the Eagles' last five fifth-round picks:

Kenneth Gainwell (RB), 2021

After hitting a pair of home runs with WR DeVonta Smith and OG Landon Dickerson in the first two rounds, Philadelphia looked to bolster their ninth-ranked running game by adding Gainwell to a backfield that already included Miles Sanders.

In three years, he’s rushed for a total of 895 yards with a career-best 364 yards in 2023. But in the team’s most recent playoff game, he had four carries for three yards with a pair of receptions for 10 yards.

Kenneth Gainwell SOARS into the end zone for the Eagles TD pic.twitter.com/1D89CaUX04
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) November 5, 2023

Gainwell has been fine as a complementary back over the years, but at the moment, he remains the only running back signed through 2024. Maybe the Eagles will need to get him some help with one of those fifth-round picks.

John Hightower (WR), 2020

Early in his rookie year, Hightower led Eagles receivers in snaps for three straight games before being supplanted by fellow rookie Quez Watkins on the team’s depth chart.

He had 50-yard catches in 2020 but finished the year with 10 catches for 167 yards and no scores. He played one game with the team in 2021 and had no receptions and spent 2022 on the Chargers’ practice squad before being released in 2023.

Clayton Thorson (QB), 2019

Less than two months before handing Carson Wentz a four-year, $128M contract extension, the Eagles drafted Northwestern’s starting quarterback to back him up.

Actually, Philadelphia signed veteran Josh McCown to be the No. 2 QB, but Thorson was seen as a developmental player that could pay dividends for the team down the road. He spent his entire rookie season on the practice squad before joining the Cowboys’ practice squad in 2020.

Thorson has yet to throw a pass in an NFL game. After spending 2021 with the New York Giants, he most recently played for the Houston Roughnecks of the USFL where he threw for 987 yards and 10 touchdowns.

Shelton Gibson (WR), 2017

Gibson won a Super Bowl with the Eagles as a rookie but had just two catches in five games for 11 yards that year. He had a single reception for 48 yards in 2018. He’s bounced around the league since then as a practice squad player for the Browns, Commanders and Panthers. His most recent experience came in the CFL with the BC Lions.

Nathan Gerry (LB), 2017

Gerry also won a ring in Super Bowl LII but was slightly more productive than Gibson. The former Cornhusker had 163 tackles, 3.5 sacks and three interceptions in four years with the team. He was released following the 2020 season and played four games as a Commander in 2022.

With a total of four fifth-round picks in the upcoming draft, general manager Howie Roseman is sure to get at least one good selection, right?

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