E.J. Perry Reverses Course to Sign with Jaguars

It never made a ton of sense that the Eagles were signing the consensus top two undrafted free agents at quarterback and that sentiment was correct in the end as Brown signal-caller E.J. Perry did a 180 and decided to sign with the Jacksonville Jaguars, according to his agent Sean Stellato.

Turns out the Eagles had offered deals to both Perry and Nevada's Carson Strong after the 2022 draft, the latter being the consensus top UDFA at QB who has terrific arm talent but a troublesome knee that could be a degenerative condition.

Philadelphia wasn't sure which way Strong was leaning when Perry decided to accept his offer and compete for the opportunity to be the developmental QB behind Jalen Hurts and Gardner Minshew.

At that point, Strong's camp took their Eagles' offer which included over $300,000 in guarantees, a very significant number for an UDFA.

Now looking at an uphill battle with both Strong and Reid Sinnett, both the Eagles and Stellato were OK with re-opening the recruiting process for Perry and the Ivy Leaguer chose Jacksonville, where former Eagles coach Doug Pederson hopes to unlock the awe-inspiring potential of Trevor Lawrence.

The backup situation at QB for the Jaguars is C.J. Beathard and Jake Luton.

Perry spent two years at Boston College before transferring to Brown, where he threw for an Ivy League record 3,678 yards with the Bears in 2019.

Last season Perry again was over the 3,000-yard passing mark with 23 touchdowns and also showed off his mobility with 402 yards on the ground and had seven more TDs, earning All-Ivy League honors and the Bushnell Cup for Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year.

Both Strong and Perry had draftable grades by many but Strong's arm talent was among the best among the draft-eligible, along with Malik Willis, who ended up going in the third round to Tennessee.

In his final season at Nevada, Strong threw for 4,175 yards at a 70.0 completion rate with 36 touchdowns vs. just eight interceptions en route to being named the Mountain West Conference Offensive Player of the Year.

-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen