Vanderbilt head football coach Clark Lea joined Unfiltered with Bill Colarulo and Ricky Bottalico to discuss Eagles’ 2nd-round pick Eli Stowers.
Eli Stowers is a unique player.
The Eagles’ second-round pick began his college career as a quarterback at Texas A&M, became a tight end at New Mexico State and then became the Mackey Award winner at Vanderbilt and got drafted on the strength of his incredible athletic tools.
Stowers is still relatively new to the tight end position and is listed at just 239 pounds. He certainly isn’t known for his blocking ability. That might make it a bit tough to come up with a player comparison for him.
But on Unfiltered with Ricky Bo & Bill Colarulo on Monday afternoon, Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea came up with a truly unique comp.
“He’s a true kind of movement H. This position, to me, is defining what football is becoming,” Lea said. “These athletic hybrid players on offense and defense. I coached Kyle Hamilton. I actually have used Kyle as a really good reference point to Eli. I know it’s the other side of the ball. But my thought is I recruited and coached Kyle to Notre Dame and here’s a guy that’s so squared away and buttoned-up, who can do so many things at a high level. Is he a nickel? Is he a high safety? He’s both. He can do it all.
“Personality-wise, they’re very similar. I see the same just on the offensive side of the ball for Eli. He’s a dynamic athlete who has the size and the physical presence to be a really good box player and a box blocker and all of a sudden on third down or all of a sudden with a matchup, you can move him around … If you watch us on third down a year ago, the last two years really, it basically becomes, ‘Where is Eli Stowers?’ That’s how we kind of functioned offensively. That’s the kind of player he is.”
While that comparison might not give you a great sense of exactly who Stowers is going to become in the NFL, it does let you know how much Lea thinks of him.
Lea was the Notre Dame defensive coordinator before becoming Vandy’s head coach in 2021. Hamilton was drafted in the first round in 2022 and has become a two-time All-Pro and three-time Pro Bowler as a truly versatile defensive piece in Baltimore’s secondary.
Stowers is not known for his blocking ability but Lea pushed back on the idea that Stowers can’t block at all. Lea said Stowers did run block at Vanderbilt and he’s plenty willing to do it. After drafting Stowers, Eagles GM Howie Roseman said it’s important to focus on what a player can do and not just their deficiencies. Stowers mostly played as a detached from the line in college.
But Stowers is a gifted athlete who still has plenty of room for growth as a tight end because of late arrival to the position. Lea said he expects Stowers to continue to grow as a blocker.
Lea also explained how the Eagles might best use Stowers.
“I think he pairs really well with an inline tight end,” Lea said. “I think what he gives the Eagles now is a chance to be in a 12 personnel grouping and to be able to run effectively out of 12 personnel and do all the things you do out of 12, which include some of your boot series plays where you’re pulling him from inside out of the core to become a perimeter receiver.
“But with Eli, 12 can become 11 really quickly. All of a sudden now, you have him matched up maybe on a nickel on the perimeter or in a situation where a team is in base, you have him matched up on a linebacker as a route runner. I think those become really advantageous positions for the Eagles now. He can block on the perimeter. If they want to stay in nickel and have him out on a slot, he’s going to be really effective to open up space for your jet series runs and your screens and all the things that teams like to do out of that. If they keep a linebacker in, you’re going to get a favorable matchup with him as an athlete. And then what he’s done for us is a lot of split-zone kicking out the defensive ends and that kind of stuff. He’s also effective that way.”
In Year 1 of his career, Stowers won’t have to be the guy at the tight end position. The Eagles this offseason brought back Dallas Goedert on a one-year, $7 million contract for the 2026 season. Goedert is one of the players Stowers said he watched as he made the transition from QB to TE a few years ago.
That transition, by the way, wasn’t an easy one. Stowers suffered a shoulder injury in college and couldn’t throw the ball the same way after it. He lost a QB competition to Diego Pavia at New Mexico State and offered to play a different position. Tim Beck suggested tight end and it stuck.
By the time Stowers and Pavia transferred to Vanderbilt, following Beck to Nashville, Stowers was a full-time tight end.
“I can’t say enough about Eli’s maturity in that moment,” Lea said. “You deal with this all the time, where guys are resistant to that kind of change or that kind of change really ends up spiraling a career. Not only did he embrace it, he thrived through it. What I also love about Eli’s story is he had a chance to go last year and be drafted. He was a draft-graded player a year ago. But instead he chose to come back. He saw the potential for growth in another year and he does that and ends the season as the Mackey Award winner. A lot to be said for his mental toughness, his resilience and the way he’s gotten to where he is.”
