Who Is That? Naming The Un-Named

This time of year it's common to be scrolling through the Eagle's roster and wonder...who the heck is that guy? Right after the season ended, within a few days in January the front office went out and did some shuffling around of the roster. The players that were on the practice squad are moved around, some get re-signed to the roster while others are just let free on the market.

As of right now, without any real knowledge of how they're going to adapt to the team considering we haven't even had these players in a mini-camp yet, this is all speculation. But tough they might seem like no-names right now, those kinda guys tend to surface around training camp and sometimes make a contribution to the final roster.

Just look around, we have a few of these "bounce around" players, guys that usually went undrated, are picked up by a team and go through a few rounds of cuts with various franchises before making their way to Philadelphia. Sometimes the Eagles are just added to the list, another team to let the player go, but other times we have success such as with Joselio Hanson and Akeem Jordan, both who are expected to be on the roster come the start of the season.

One of those practice squad promotion players is Jeremy Clark, a name that might be familiar to those who recognize him from going through the preseason and training camp with us. Originally signed as an undrafted free agent by the Eagles last year, Clark wasn't able to make his way on the roster but hopefully progressed through gaining some experience with the team on the practice squad. He only saw a few snaps last preseason so I'm sure he hopes that changes this time upcoming year.

Another undrafted rookie signed by the Eagles, FB Jason Davis was brought onto the team in 2006 but after a season ending knee injury in the preseason, he didn't get much of an opportunity to prove himself. His name was mentioned in regards to pushing Tapeh a little bit for his job but he didn't end up making the roster, spending this past season on the practice squad. With a full healthy year in the league now out of the way, Davis is going to look to challenge Thomas Tapeh for that starting fullback spot yet again. That especially is the case considering that Tapeh is going to be an un-restricted free agent come February 29th, so it is yet to be seen whether the team will keep him around of not. My prediction is he will be re-signed but the deal will be structured so that it wouldn't be a tough cap hit if he is cut before the season begins.

Tanard Davis, Cornerback, started his career off as a member of the Super Bowl Champion Colts practice squad when he was signed as an undrafted free agent in 2006. After that season he was on the Carolina Panthers practice squad for a majority of last year until the Birds picked him up at the end of December, just in time to be around for the season finale against the Bills. According to the Eagles profile on Davis, he was a talented track athlete that in 2004 even beat Chicago Bears phenomenal return man, Devin Hester, in the 60-meter dash. Stemming from this information alone are we going to see Davis take some reps as a punt or kick returner? Considering the Jeremy Bloom experiment never panned out, Bethel Johnson didn't even make it into training camp last season, and we resorted back to Reno Mahe after some awful mistakes by J.R. Reed and Greg Lewis...couldn't hurt to see what Davis can do.

Another cornerback recently picked up is Therrian Fontenot, who has seen time in Buffalo, Green Bay, NFL Europe, and Cleveland. Fontenot spent some time on the Eagles practice squad this year and after hanging around there, was signed to a 3 year deal at the end of the season. Yet another player here to prove himself, having bounced around to team after team I'm sure he's looking for a place he can make his home.

One of the coolest names I've seen in awhile, Defensive End Xzavie Jackson, is in the same boat as Fontenot, having spent time of the Eagles practice squad last year. Initially signed by the Bengals but cut prior to the pre-season, Jackson wasn't in the league again until added to Philly's pratice squad in November. Probably receiving a very similiar deal as Fontenot as well, Jackson was signed to a 3-year contract in January and will hope to make an impact amongst a group of defensive ends looking for a stand out beyond Trent Cole.

A more experienced player of this group, if you describe a 2nd year player as experienced, is A.J. Schable another defensive end. I only say experienced because in 2006, his rookie year, Schable played in 11 games with the Arizona Cardinals as a DE and FB but primarily put his time in on special teams.

Now I'm going to finish things off with three wide recievers, two of whom you might be semi familiar with. Both Bill Sampy and Michael Gasperson have been names mentioned again and again having been on and off the Eagles roster numerous times. Last year though Gasperson finally got his chance to make the 53-man roster and he actually played in his first NFL regular season game, in New Orleans. But right in line with how frustrating his career has been to this point despite having so much potential, Gasperson dropped the one pass that was thrown his way that game and was cut 3 days later. Yet again though, the man is back and trying to make the deal one more time.

Bill Sampy has spent the past 2 years as a practice squad player and been part of that group of wide receivers trying to pick up one of the final roster spots during training camp. Hasn't worked out for him yet, but I'm assuming we'll see him at Lehigh University once more time when August rolls around.

Finally, we come upon the only one of these players that has scored a touchdown yet in his NFL career and that is wide receiver Jamal Jones. After bouncing around from St. Louis to to Green Bay than settling with the Saints, New Orleans was where he got his first and only start. Throughout that season he racked up 6 catches for 108 yards and 1 touchdown while seeing action in 12 games.

Like I said, some of this is going to be pointless come August because there's no guarantee that any of these guys will still be around. But I figured it can't hurt to take a glance at some of the names that you're not sure of now because there is a great chance that at least one of these guys could surprise some people and rise to the top during training camp. We have a long road ahead of us but it's these kind of core players that build a good team from top to bottom, so we'll have to see how everything pans out.