From Bubble to Breakout: The Five Eagles Who Could Go Boom or Bust
Training camp is nearly here for the Eagles and there is much more certainty surrounding the 2022 version of Nick Sirianni's team especially when it comes to the perceived key cogs on both sides of the football.
That doesn't mean there isn't room for certain players to catch the eyes of the head coach and his staff in both a positive or negative way, however.
The five players who will report to the NovaCare Complex on Tuesday of next week with the widest range of outcomes, call it boom or bust, are listed below:
Cornerback Tay Gowan
Potential fate: Waiver wire to top backup at outside CB Behind Darius Slay and James Bradberry
The rangy Gowan, 24, was acquired before the trade deadline last season in the Zach Ertz deal so this will be the first training camp for the young CB in Philadelphia.
The Eagles wanted to take the Central Florida product at No. 224 in the 2021 draft when the Cards selected him with the pick before, shifting Philadelphia to LSU safety turned linebacker JaCoby Stevens.
While that's a nice story, the Eagles had three picks in the sixth round 17 months ago and used Nos. 189 and 191 on defensive linemen Marlon Tuipulotu and Tarron Jackson, respectively, a clear indication that while the organization certainly liked Gowan it wasn't enough to make sure the acquisition was never in doubt.
From a traits standpoint, though, Gowan is everything that Philadelphia wants in an outside corner when it comes to length (6-foot-1 with 31 1/8-inch arms) and speed (4.49).
Currently, Philadelphia has 12 CBs on the 90-man roster after releasing Craig James and it seems like only 2021 fourth-round pick Zech McPhearson can feel comfortable behind starters Darius Slay, James Bradberry, and Avonte Maddox.
Gowan was also behind fellow second-year player Mac McCain in OTAs, an indication he's still got some work to do when it comes to pleasing defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon and secondary coach Dennard Wilson.
Quarterback Carson Strong
Potential fate: Waiver wire to backup QB by the trade deadline
Strong, 22, has top 50 to 75-like arm talent but went undrafted in April due to some serious concerns over a knee injury that required two surgeries and limited his mobility.
Strong himself confirmed the issue was osteochondritis dissicans, something where part of the cartilage starts to detach from the bone, according to the young QB.
The clinical definition is much more daunting:
a joint condition in which bone underneath the cartilage of a joint dies due to lack of blood flow.
It was enough to scare 32 teams off through seven rounds but the Eagles felt $320,000 guaranteed, among the most for undrafted players this year, was worth the investment.
The betting line is that Strong will beat out Reid Sinnett as the developmental quarterback behind Jalen Hurts and Gardner Minshew. From there who knows what can happen with Minshew at the trade deadline because the top-tier backup is on a contract year and likely to leave Philadelphia for a better opportunity elsewhere.
Everything depends on health for Strong, though. If he can't show any mobility at all, it's not out of the realm of possibility that the Eagles stick with Sinnett.
Running Back Jason Huntley
Potential fate: Waiver wire to top kickoff returner
The speedy Huntley, 24, is among the fastest Eagles (although everyone has to now defer to Olympic hurdler Devon Allen in that category) and is already the best option at kick returner where the team needs some explosiveness to help better what was a serious field position problem last season.
The problem for Huntley is that kick returners are far less valued than they used to be as the league has grown closer to rendering the job description moot in the name of player safety.
Last season, the Eagles returned a total of 34 kicks in the regular season, an average of 2.0 per game, and that traffic is just not enough to keep a player as a specialist who only returns kickoffs.
Huntley has to prove he can also help the team in the backfield consistently and perhaps on special teams coverage units to snare the KR job that he would likely earn on merit.
Linebacker Davion Taylor
Potential fate: Inactive on game days to starting LB
Many are sleeping on the 2020 third-round pick who seemed to be coming around last season before a knee injury shut down the development.
In the ensuing months, the Eagles added potential contributors in both free agency (Kyzir White) and the draft (Nakobe Dean) at off-ball LB, steering many to regard Taylor, 23, as an afterthought.
And that's likely the way things end up, but Taylor is a better athlete than T.J. Edwards and Dean and is way more physical than White.
For what it's worth the Eagles seem to think more of Taylor than many outside the building so don't close the book on the Mississippi native just yet.
Wide Receiver Jalen Reagor
Potential fate: Released as a sunken cost to starting slot receiver
Of course, fans don't want to hear it after two seasons of lackluster production from a 2020 first-round pick but the Eagles aren't just going to release Jalen Reagor.
If that's the case and there is no trade to be made, Reagor is likely going to be there on Sept. 11 in Detroit as either the kick returner, punt returner, or both.
From there, objectivity forces me to remind you that Reagor's upside in the slot is much greater than pedestrian options like Zach Pascal and Greg Ward, and an out-of-position Quez Watkins, a player best utilized as a deep threat outside the numbers.
-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Sports. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talker Jody McDonald, every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube.com and JAKIBSports.com. You can reach John at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
