Next-Man-Up Craze Lands on Travis Fulgham

Philadelphia was introduced to the waiver wire pickup and now the city knows his name after Fulgham's 42-yard TD in win over the Niners

Last season it was Greg Ward with a bit of Boston Scott and Josh Perkins mixed in. 

This time Eagles fans got to know the 6-foot-2 Travis Fulgham in the Doug Pederson-trademarked game, the one where everyone and I mean everyone picks Philadelphia to lose.

You think Joe Biden is cruising with an 80 percent probability rate before the Presidential election in a month. Well, the entire crew of "Football Night in America" picked the 49ers on Sunday night, as did just about every talking head from Broad Street to Silicon Valley, at least the ones without some kind of Eagles logo tattooed on their bodies.

So, of course, Pederson found a way to get his team across the finish line and into first place in the moribund NFC East with a 25-20 win.

A big part of that was the lengthy Fulgham, a 25-year-old Old Dominion product, picked up off waivers from Green Bay on Aug. 20, who hauled in a beautiful 42-yard touchdown pass from Carson Wentz with just under six minutes, a play that gave the Eagles an 18-14 advantage they would never surrender.

After the contest, Wentz revealed that he and Fulgham, who was signed from the practice squad the day before the game, had only repped the go route once during practice and it worked then as well.

"When we broke the huddle, I told him to be ready,” said Wentz. “I’ve seen him with this team for a while now going up against our defense on scout team, and what he does to our defense. I’ve been watching him and seeing what he’s capable of. I’m just proud of him for coming out here and making plays.”

Fulgham, a 2019 sixth-round pick of the Detroit Lions, was waived by Detroit on Aug. 10 and lasted 10 days with Packers before his game of waiver-wire bingo landed in Philadelphia. He showed enough in a short window this summer that the Eagles felt the need to keep the Alexandria, Va. native on the expanded 16-man practice squad.

The “job security” even came with a number change from No. 6 to No. 13, Nelson Agholor's last uniform number in Philadelphia.

“It’s definitely been a long year for me, a long offseason,” said Fulgham. “I came here to Philly and they definitely gave me an opportunity. Working with Carson has been great. Like he said in practice, we hit on it, it was a perfect throw then. In the game, he doubled back with that and gave me a perfect throw and made it easy for me.”

Agholor and Fulgham are different types of receivers but the former first-round pick out of Southern Cal, who is currently rebuilding his career in Las Vegas, is an interesting comparison because confidence issues seem to have derailed Agholor’s talent with the Eagles. 

The same holds true for 2019 second-round pick, J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, who is the same type of receiver as Fulgham, a lengthy, big-bodied player who is supposed to make contested catches like the one on Sunday night.

The long-term goal for the Eagles is to get DeSean Jackson (hamstring), Alshon Jeffery (foot), and Jalen Reagor (thumb) back in this offense and there is at least a possibility the first two might return for Week 5 in Pittsburgh.

Until then, however, at least the next man up has the confidence to seize an opportunity

“You can ask anybody on the team, he was a guy I actually used to brag on the sideline,” Eagles defensive back Jalen Mills said. “Once he got in during camp, I’ve literally never seen him drop a ball. I used to always walk up and down the sideline every time he would catch a ball and I would say, ‘I’ve never seen this dude drop a ball in practice.'

"I know once he gets his opportunity, he’s going to make the most of it.”

John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John every Monday and Friday on SIRIUSXM and every Monday and Thursday with Eytan Shander on SportsMap Radio. He’s also the host of Extending the Play on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen

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