Eagles Didn't 'Want To Get Cute' with Promising Edge Rusher

The Eagles are enamored with the potential of Houston Christian edge rusher Jalyx Hunt

Feb 29, 2024; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Houston Christian defensive lineman Jalyx Hunt (DL34) works out / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

PHILADELPHIA - In one of the more interesting Eagles' draft-day decisions in recent years, Howie Roseman swung for the fences with Houston Christian edge rusher Jalyx Hunt at the end of the third round at No. 94 overall late Friday night.

A late-bloomer physically, forget about Power 5 schools, the well-spoken Hunt started in the Ivy League at Cornell as a 6-foot-2, 195-pound safety before ending his college career at an FCS bible school in bustling downtown Houston that didn't even play football until 2014 and changed its name two years ago.

Along the way, Hunt blossomed into a 6-foot-4, 250-pound edge defender who Vic Fangio loves as a prospect.

The traits Hunt possesses offer the siren's song of upside. The question is the floor of the prospect and whether that potential is worthy of taking a chance with a so-called premium pick.

“He’s got freaky tools in his body,” Eagles general manager Howie Roseman said. “He's an explosive guy. If you watch his best plays, he's doing things that are unique. He can bend. He can close. He can finish. He's long. He's an extremely smart kid, obviously coming from Cornell."

Unique is something that's always going to stand out to talent evaluators.

“You know, you can say, ‘Well, that's the third round and you're a good team, why are you doing that?’ Because these guys are hard to find," Roseman explained. "We believe in edge rushers and we just felt like there was a tremendous buy-in from our staff about this player. Obviously from the coaching staff, from the front office, we thought this guy had tremendous tools.”

While not yet a finished product Hunt looks the part of an NFL edge rusher and his testing numbers are going to excite any NFL building. Explosion is what scouts want in pass rushers and Hunt's broad jump of 10-8 was the best of any edge rusher in this class while his vertical leap of 37-5 was top five. Everything else, including 40 speed, and 10-yard split was top 10.

Athletically, there is no question Hunt has the goods and the goal is to polish that up into a finished product.

Enter Fangio, the veteran defensive coordinator who pounded the table to get this particular piece of clay.

"We just talked football, man. It wasn't anything too specific," Hunt said of his first meeting with Fangio. "Really just sat down and talked about my story. I got to know him a little bit just through his mind, understanding how he sees football. He's a legend when it comes to coaching. So to be able to watch some film of myself and then get some coaching from him, just get the break down of different ways I could attack tackles or what I could have done better in the situation, we were really just talking football."

The preference for the Eagles was to probably wait until early in Day 3 for Hunt but Roseman felt that wasn't an option as the small-school star crept up Daniel Jeremiah's best available list beaming consistently over the NFL Network.

“I think this is one of the guys that you started to hear a lot of the buzz on him. It starts out, you kind of are going, ‘All right, maybe I can get this guy on the third day,’ and then you start seeing a bunch of mock drafts with his name in it in the second and third round and then you start seeing DJ's list and stuff like that, and so then you realize there are no more secrets.”

Roseman joked about texting Jeremiah, a former Eagles scout, to keep Hunt's name under wraps.

“For us, it was just like we didn't want to get cute,” Roseman said, “We want to develop the player. I think one of our scouts, after we picked him, said, ‘Man, where can this guy be in two years? What kind of pass rusher?’"

MORE NFL: Eagles Bolster Roster By Focusing On Offensive Skill Players On Day 3 Of NFL Draft