Exclusive: Clark Lea Makes Case For Eli Stowers To Be Taken In First Round of NFL Draft – Sports Illustrated

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NASHVILLE—Clark Lea is on the spot to give NFL teams a pitch as to why they should take Eli Stowers in the first round of the NFL Draft, and he doesn’t flinch. Lea appears to feel as if he can build the foundation of his persuasion by merely re-hashing all of Stowers’ accolades. He’s got more insight to add, but Stowers’ rèsumè does plenty of work for him. 
As Lea addresses Stowers, he brings up Stowers winning the Campbell trophy, his role on a Vanderbilt team that set the program’s record for wins in a season and his standout high-jump at the NFL combine. Lea wouldn’t be making much of an argument if he was merely listing off accolades, though. 
But, hearing Lea speak about Stowers for two seasons indicated that he wasn’t done singing his former tight end’s praises. And he wasn’t. 
“There's not a more deserving player of a first round draft pick than Eli,” Lea told Vandy on SI. “Talk about quiet confidence and building meaningful connection with teammates. This guy is as good as I've been around that way and he has the productive career that he’s had in the SEC. He's been in the tight end room for two years and helped us to a school record and wins and then turns around and almost jumps to the roof in Indianapolis so I think all the physical traits are there. Mentally, he's a converted quarterback who knows the game at a really high-level. He was such a dependable target and in critical moments made the big plays.” 
When Stowers joined Vanderbilt’s program in 2024, he still had a tangible lack of experience in the tight end meeting room. Stowers started his career as a quarterback at Texas A&M after being tabbed as a four-star recruit in high school, but saw the field sparingly and underwent a surgery after his sophomore season to repair a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder. 
Stowers transferred down to New Mexico State to see if he could find it again at quarterback before Diego Pavia beat him out for the starting job. Pavia was better, but Stowers knew that he wasn’t what he once was as a quarterback as a result of the state of his shoulder. At that point, Stowers underwent some self-evaluation and decided that a move to tight end would give him the best chance to be on the field consistently moving forward. 
The 2023 season represented Stowers’ breakout season at tight end, but the consensus within New Mexico State’s coaching staff was that he had significantly more ahead of him than he showed that season. They were right. 
Stowers’ Vanderbilt career–which started when he joined a number of coaches that made the move from New Mexico State to Nashville–is among the best in program history. Stowers was a First-Team All-SEC player in his first year at Vanderbilt, and improved in year two. 
There appeared to be some momentum in regard to the idea that Stowers would leave school after that season, but he opted to return to Vanderbilt with the intention of making one final push for a College Football Playoff berth and improving his skillset as a blocker. Stowers went for 769 yards that season while catching 62 balls and find his way to the end zone four times. 
“Whoever takes him, they're gonna look very, very smart,” Vanderbilt tight ends coach Brendan Flaherty said. “ He's a guy who's gone through adversity. A lot of teams are curious about, bringing guys in without an injury history because, God forbid, something happens in the NFL, how are they going to respond? How are they going to react? 
How are they going to attack their rehab? Eli's already done that twice at A&M and leaving high school. He knows that way. He’s obviously, super talented in the pass game. I believe he can do it in the run game, too.” 
Flaherty didn’t open his remarks about Stowers with anything related to that, though. Instead, he harped on Stowers’ passion for his faith and what that says about his character. Stowers is as deep of a thinker as has passed through this program in the Clark Lea era. He’s among the most well-researched Christian apologists that have ever come through the program. He’s the first one that overcame his fear of stage fright and shared his testimony at Vanderbilt’s “Come As You Are” event on campus. 
Now, he’ll take that spirit–and this program–to the NFL. 
“We're excited for him,” Lea said, “And I'm just so proud to have him represent our program.”
Stowers is the type that still gets brought up around Vanderbilt’s McGugin Center often because of the type of impact he’s had on Lea’s program as well as a number of individuals within it. As a result, it meant something to Vanderbilt offensive coordinator Tim Beck and his wife when they were invited to Stowers’ draft party. Odds are that they won’t hear his name called until Friday night, but they believe that a team would be smart to take Stowers before then. 
“He's one of those young men that, he's a great player and a better person,” Beck said. “He's so smart. He's athletic. He's explosive. 
He's an NFL player, and he's going to make an NFL team better.”
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Joey Dwyer is the lead writer on Vanderbilt Commodores On SI. He found his first love in college sports at nearby Lipscomb University and decided to make a career of telling its best stories. He got his start doing a Notre Dame basketball podcast from his basement as a 14-year-old during COVID and has since aimed to make that 14-year-old proud. Dwyer has covered Vanderbilt sports for three years and previously worked for 247 Sports and Rivals. He contributes to Seth Davis' Hoops HQ, Basket Under Review and Mainstreet Nashville.
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