Eli Stowers still hasn’t played a snap for the Eagles, but the rookie tight end finally took a meaningful step back toward the field on Wednesday.
After spending the past five weeks on injured reserve with hamstring and quad injuries, Stowers was back on the practice field at the Jefferson Health Training Complex, where his 21-day practice window was opened. The second-round pick was limited in his return, and he didn’t commit to being ready for Sunday’s game against the Carolina Panthers.
“It’s really a matter of being patient with that kind of stuff, really making sure you feel like you’re fully healthy to where you can go full speed,” Stowers said. “And I’m getting to that point right now.”
It was the first time Stowers had spoken to reporters since Sept. 11, when he said “the plan” was for him to make his debut in Week 1 against the Commanders. That never happened. The next day, he was placed on IR.
Stowers made it clear Wednesday that he believed he was going to play in that opener. He said the team had told him to expect to suit up, and only after an MRI that night did the situation change.
“We had media come in and ask me about the game, and I thought I was playing,” Stowers explained on Wednesday. “I knew my quad was bothering me a little bit.
But that night - that was the plan for me to play in the game that weekend. But that night, we got the MRI just to check and make sure, and it ended up being a little bit worse than what we thought it was.
So it was tough to hear that news.”
The injury delay came during a summer that already asked plenty of Stowers. He had to handle the “mental challenge” of picking up Sean Mannion’s offense while also adjusting to the NFL level.
He didn’t get first-team reps in camp, and he had just three catches across two preseason games. Then the hamstring issue that knocked him out late in camp was followed by the quad setback.
“That was obviously frustrating,” Stowers said. “But at the same time, I approached it the same way I would if I was playing.
How can I better myself? ... I tried to maximize that to the best of my ability.”
For the past few weeks, that meant staying “locked in” even while he couldn’t suit up. Coaches gave him the play script at practice so he could track assignments. In the building, veteran Dallas Goedert said Stowers was “a sponge,” soaking up film study, listening in on game plans and asking questions when meetings ended.
Stowers said Goedert and the rest of the tight ends have been “so open” in helping him, and he called it a “blessing” to have his locker next to Zach Ertz.
The Eagles still have some runway before they must add Stowers to the 53-man roster, or he’ll automatically be moved to season-ending IR. That means his debut could still be a few weeks away, possibly not until November.
Even so, Stowers said the goal now is straightforward: take everything he’s learned since the Eagles drafted him in April and put it to use.
“The biggest thing is to get him healthy, and he needs reps,” Goedert said. “It’ll be fun to watch him over this week, the following week, out there on scout team, watch a little bit of that film, see what he’s doing, see if I can help him learn anything. ... I know he’s going to figure it out.”
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