Some undrafted tight ends would have looked at the Eagles’ roster, with Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert, and wanted to find a situation with a little more obvious opportunity.
Not Jack Stoll.
The undrafted tight end out of Nebraska joined the Eagles this spring in large part because of Ertz and Goedert.
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“Obviously, when you’re in a room with Zach and Dallas and a bunch of other guys, it’s an awesome opportunity to learn,” Stoll said this week. “And being the undrafted guy, you come to the reality that you’re not going to walk in and be the starter Day 1. Being able to learn from guys like that and have an opportunity to be in a city like this is really what drew me.”
Things worked out for Stoll. Because after an impressive training camp and preseason, he made the team. Stoll is the only member of this year’s Eagles undrafted crop to make the initial 53-man roster.
He earned it.
Stoll didn’t catch a ton of balls in college so he came to the NFL wanting to prove he had that in his game and he did. Stoll showed impressive hands during the training camp practices and was the Eagles’ second-leading receiver in the preseason with 6 catches for 47 yards. Stoll made the team over veteran Richard Rodgers.
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But he’s still a work in progress as an undrafted rookie.
This SI.com draft profile from April says Stoll has “sure hands” and is a “reliable blocker,” but it also says Stoll’s “routes take a long time to develop.”
So when asked what trait he would want take from Ertz or Goedert, Stoll didn’t hesitate.
“I think No. 1, it’s pretty obvious,” Stoll said. “The route running. If I could end up running routes like Zach does here in a couple years, I think I’d be an unbelievable receiving tight end.
“I know coming out, I was known as a blocking guy and I’m out there just trying to prove everyone wrong that I can catch the ball, I can block, I can do everything like that. But that I’m a complete tight end who can do it all.”
Stoll said that when the Eagles pitched him to come to Philly they told him he’d have an opportunity to learn from a couple very good vets and new tight ends coach Jason Michael, but he also said they didn’t guarantee him anything. … That’s not exactly true.
The Eagles clearly liked Stoll, giving him a signing bonus of $22,500 and a contract with $122,500 guaranteed. That’s the most guaranteed money they gave to anyone in their UDFA class this year.
Stoll was one of four tight ends to make the initial roster, along with Ertz, Goedert and Tyree Jackson, who has since been put on IR with a fracture in his back.
As long as Ertz and Goedert stay healthy, there’s probably not much of a role for Stoll, at least not on offense.
So in the meantime, he’ll be working at practice and trying to learn all he can from those in front of him on the depth chart.
“They’ve really gone out of their way, whether it’s in walkthrough or practice, they’ll give me a tip here or there,” Stoll said. “Just soaking in information and how they do everything every day and seeing how they perfect their craft has been unbelievable. I couldn’t be more grateful for those guys and how they’ve helped me develop.”
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