Eagles newcomers ‘26: How soon can Eli Stowers make an impact at tight end?
Also, Maximus Pulley tries to extend his remarkable football journey as a long shot at safety.
With Eagles training camp drawing nearer, The Inquirer is taking a closer look at the more than three dozen new faces who are expected to report along with the rest of the team on July 28.
Player: Eli Stowers
Position: Tight end
Age: 23
Previous experience: Stowers, a second-round pick in this year’s draft, has been a tight end for only a few years. He entered college in 2021 as a quarterback, a top 20 recruit nationally at his position. But shoulder injuries forced him to find a new spot on the field. He was 6-foot-4, 215 pounds when he entered college. He’s now 240 pounds and scouts rave about his blend of size and speed. At Vanderbilt last season, Stowers, who won the 2025 William V. Campbell Trophy, otherwise known as the “Academic Heisman,” caught 62 passes for 769 yards and four touchdowns in 12 games.
Whether a 2026 draft choice, a veteran addition, or a rookie free-agent hopeful, we’re telling you more about each player’s potential role this season. We’re rolling out two players per day in a mostly unscientific order that balances offense and defense, bigger names with mysteries, and locks with longer shots to be chosen for the 53-man roster.
He was named the nation’s top tight end after leading all FBS tight ends in receiving yards per game (64.1). A year earlier, Stowers, a two-year starter at tight end, had 49 catches for 638 yards in 13 games with the Commodores.
Path to a roster spot: Stowers’ spot on the team is secure. His role, however, is up in the air right now. It’s not worth overanalyzing organized team activities and mandatory minicamp workouts in May and June, but Stowers didn’t stand out during practices open to reporters.
Nick Sirianni seems excited about the possibility of lining Stowers up in the slot and creating mismatches, but the tight end’s path to significant playing time in his rookie season includes becoming a better blocker. Dallas Goedert is the unquestioned No. 1 on the depth chart, and the Eagles brought in a blocking tight end, Johnny Mundt, to help fill in an area of weakness from last year. If Stowers proves to be an efficient route-runner who can get open and make plays, he’ll find himself on the field plenty.
Fun fact: Stowers is a son of coaches. His father, Donald, played defensive back at New Mexico State and had a short professional football career before becoming a coach. His mother, Tina, played volleyball at Baylor and later became a coach. While recovering from shoulder surgery in 2021, Stowers learned how to play guitar.
Quotable: “I’m going to throw a name out here and people may be [like], ‘Are you serious?’ I’m just speaking from a standpoint of his approach to the game, and when I watch him — Travis Kelce was a former quarterback,” former Eagles receiver Jordan Matthews, now a coach at Vanderbilt, said in April when asked for Stowers’ NFL comparison. “You can tell Travis Kelce runs routes like he understands the defensive structure.
“He knows what the defense has given him, and so he knows how to find voids in zone. But then he’s also athletic enough to win vs. man.”
Player: Maximus Pulley
Position: Safety
Age: 23
Previous experience: Pulley’s rise has been remarkable. He did not have any scholarship offers out of high school. Western Kentucky, where he began his college journey, didn’t even have a preferred walk-on spot for him. Pulley tried out for the team in the middle of the season in 2021 and joined the scout team. By the next year, he was a full-time special teamer. He hit the transfer portal after 2022 and landed at Wofford, a FCS program. He started every game with Wofford the next three seasons. Last year, Pulley led the team with five interceptions and returned two of them for touchdowns. He was a first-team All-American.
At his pro day, Pulley ran a 4.45 40-yard dash and registered a vertical jump of 41½ inches.
Path to a roster spot: Pulley is a long shot. The Eagles have at least some uncertainty at safety, but Pulley will be starting pretty low on the totem pole. Drew Mukuba is a lock to start, and the Eagles plan to use All-Pro nickel Cooper DeJean at safety in base. Right now, Marcus Epps is next in line to get on the field, with Michael Carter II also in the mix. The Eagles also used a seventh-round draft pick on a safety, Cole Wisniewski, and signed veteran special teams ace J.T. Gray. There’s room for an undrafted free agent like Pulley to make a push, but he’ll also be competing with fellow UDFA Kapena Gushiken — who Vic Fangio has already name-dropped — for opportunities.
Fun fact: Pulley, a sociology and anthropology major with a 3.64 GPA at Wofford, was named an academic All-American last season.
Quotable: “Coming out high school, I wasn’t really good, but I was always the hardest worker,” Pulley said earlier this year on the Sam Acho podcast. “I feel like I’ve passed over so many people in the football world due to my work alone and my delusion. My mom loves the faith that I’ve always had, but the faith has come more recently. The delusion … I thought I was so much better than I was but I always trusted the work that I did."
