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If you stayed up late enough, you saw why the Eagles are so high on Eli Stowers
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- If you stayed up late enough, you saw why the Eagles are so high on Eli Stowers
If you stayed up late enough, you saw why the Eagles are so high on Eli Stowers originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Eli Stowers said two weeks ago that whenever he did finally get the opportunity to make plays, he was confident he'd be ready.
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Then he went out Sunday night and showed he was.
It was largely garbage time and the game was all but over, but Stowers – the Eagles' rookie 2nd-round pick – caught three passes for 53 yards in the second half of the Eagles' sixth straight loss. They were the first three receptions of his career in the second game of his career.
Stowers caught a seven-yarder from Tanner McKee for a first down in the third quarter and then caught passes on the final two snaps of the game, a 12-yarder that gave the Eagles a 4th-and-7 on the Washington 42-yard-line with two seconds left and then a 34-yarder down to the 8-yard-line as time expired.
"It's always good to get the first one out of the way and to be able to feel that in a game," Stowers said at his locker after practice Wednesday. "Anytime you go out there and you get a first catch, that's a blessing to be able to even say that, 'I got my first catch in the NFL game,' so I think it did help the confidence.
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"My body's been feeling better and been able to move a little better so it felt good."
After a middling training camp, Stowers spent the first six weeks of the season on Injured Reserve, and it was fair to wonder what exactly the Eagles had in this converted quarterback from Vanderbilt. He made his NFL debut in the loss to the Cowboys and had one target but no catches.
But anyone who watched till the end of the game Sunday night got to see the soft hands, athleticism and speed the Eagles like enough about Stowers to make him the 54th player and second tight end taken in this year's draft.
He actually almost scored on that final snap of the game before finally getting tackled at the 8-yard-line after the longest pass play of McKee's career.
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"I caught the ball and it was a lot of space," he said. "And so anytime you catch the ball, you've got to go try to score. That's the mindset that any ball carrier should have. So that was my mindset. I was hoping I could drag them in there. They ended up getting me down, but it's all right."
What's really important is that Stowers is healthy after a lost summer. The Eagles didn't rush him back, and it paid off.
"I had hurt my hamstring and then I hurt my quad and then it was a span of like seven weeks where I just had to get my body back healthy from camp," he said. "I don't think it was really a matter of me being behind physically. It was just I had to get back healthy, get on the field and perform well."
Stowers became the Eagles' first 2nd-round pick to not play the first six weeks of a season since guard Bobbie Williams in 2001. Williams wound up playing 12 years in the NFL and starting 136 games, mainly for the Bengals.
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"Sometimes injuries like that, you can't do anything about it," he said. "Take care of your body the best way you can. Get good sleep, eat right, drink, do all the stuff. But sometimes you just can't do anything about it. So if you sit there and you stay on it, kind of sulk about it, nothing's going to get any better. So I just attacked it every single day of getting it back right and be prepared for when I get back."
It's no coincidence that the Eagles put Stowers' locker next to Zach Ertz, whose 828 career catches are 5th-most in NFL history by a tight end.
Ertz is currently on the practice squad and out of elevations, but that doesn't mean he can't be a sounding board every day for the 23-year-old Stowers.
"He's been awesome," Stowers said. "Everybody in that room has been awesome. We got all vets in there and I really appreciate how much they've kind of poured into me.
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"One of the first things Zach told me when he got here, he was like, 'Yo, if you have anything, any questions, anything,' let me know. Don't be scared to ask. Sometimes he'll even, when I'm sitting here being quiet, he'll encourage me to ask him a question. Like, 'Have you got something?'
"So, I appreciate that, man. He's helping me get better."
