Report: Eagles to Sign Quarterback Cody Kessler

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By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor

The most controversial pick that the Eagles made in the 2019 NFL Draft was the selection of a quarterback in the fifth round.

The Eagles selected Clayton Thorson out of Northwestern. Thorson was not a universally accepted pick by the Philadelphia fan base, but the team loves him and he has the same skill sets as Nick Foles, meaning the Eagles could develop him into a cost controlled backup for the foreseeable future.

The move seemed to solidify the quarterback position with starter Carson Wentz and Nate Sudfeld, who was extended a second-round tender, filling the other two quarterback positions. At the same time, it seemed to leave AAF starter Luis Perez without a chance at a spot.

Perez seems even more unlikely to make the team following the reported addition of Cody Kessler as Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network reports that the team will sign the former USC and NFL starting quarterback to a deal on Monday.

Kessler has appeared in 17 games (12 starts) and has posted a 64.2% completion rate, 2215 yards and eight touchdowns to just five interceptions. His quarterback rating is 83.7 over his three seasons in the NFL and he is coming off an ugly season in Jacksonville, though the Jaguars lacked any real offensive pieces around him.

Kessler has a chance at a roster spot as he showed potential while surrounded by teams (Brown 2016 and 2017, Jaguars 2018) with no real offensive threats around him.

That said, Kessler would need to be highly impressive and the Eagles would probably look to trade Nate Sudfeld should Kessler earn a roster spot. The Eagles will not want to cut Sudfeld and exposing Thorson to waivers would likely come back to bite the Birds as some other team would be happy to claim him as a third quarterback.

Eagles training camp just got a bit more interesting with three quality quarterbacks vying for two backup positions.

UPDATE: The signing is official and the corresponding move is releasing Luis Perez.

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