Eagles

NFL Draft Roundtable: Favorite UDFA Signing By The Eagles?

Paul Bowman Sports Editor

Published12 May 2025

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With most of the draft process in the books (UDFA and rookie minicamp are still in progress, keep up to date here), we’ve polled the Sports Talk Philly staff on a few questions regarding the draft.

We’re moving on to the question: Which UDFA do you think is your favorite/going to be the most likely to stick with the team?

Paul Bowman, Managing Editor

I think I’ll have to give two different answers here. Hollin Pierce is my favorite UDFA – I think he’d probably be at least a day 2 pick had he not spent his entire career at Rutgers. No offense to the fans like Michael, but it was simply a poor business move by Pierce, who had shown out against NFL competition in the B1G, to spend his whole career in Piscataway. They’ve made improvements to not be the absolute worst team in the conference every single year, but as far as the draft goes, I do think you’re more likely to be drafted as a standout at Louisiana Tech, North Dakota State, Toledo, etc. than you are to have been a standout at Rutgers. It may not be fair, but the numbers don’t lie – they’ve got like 1/3 of the total draft picks of the next lowest B1G school (at 71 picks all-time) and Pierce has the talent that he should have been drafted. He has the highest ceiling of any UDFA for the Birds this year and that’s an exciting player for Stoutland to develop.

That said, he’ll have a tough time fighting off five presumptive starters, Kenyon Green, Kendall Lamm, and Matt Pryor as the free agent signings, second-year man Trevor Keegan, and three OL they just drafted. Sneaking him to the practice squad this year might be his best chance in a position with a roster crunch. Otherwise, it may be like when the Eagles had to trade away future NFL starter Ryan Bates because they already had 9 NFL starters among their OL depth on the initial 53-man roster.

The most likely player to stick on the roster, I think will be Maxen Hook. He was highly productive and a team leader at safety. He’s got familiarity with Quinyon Mitchell and secondary players from the smaller schools like Toledo seem to do well in the NFL. Of course, it’s also a weaker position for the Eagles, who are otherwise relying on a second-round pick and a player whose spent much of his NFL career as an injured backup. I wouldn’t think it’d be too hard for Hook to at least work his way over Tristin McCollum on the depth chart – in part because the three years of cost-controlled play he could offer would appeal more to the Eagles than the one or two years of reasonable control they maintain in contract over McCollum.

Matt Gregan, Managing Editor

BJ Mayes, a cornerback from Texas A&M, should have a good chance at making the Eagles’ roster. He has the athletic tools to play as a slot cornerback, a position Philadelphia is relatively thin at (outside of Cooper DeJean). Mayes bounced around multiple programs at the collegiate level, but he consistently found his way to the football at every stop. He recorded double-digit pass breakups in 2022 and 2023 before having his best collegiate season (four interceptions, five pass breakups) last year at Texas A&M.

Mike Lipinski, Managing Editor

I’m partial, but I have high hopes for Rutgers Scarlet Knights offensive tackle Hollin Pierce. Standing 6-foot-8-inches and nearly 350-pounds, the Trenton, NJ native was a rock for the Rutgers offensive line playing in 51 games from 2021-2024. Pierce began to excel under the tutelage of two-time Super Bowl winning offensive line coach Pat Flaherty (NYG, XLII, XLVI). The recipe is there –a little bit of Flats coaching and mix it with a lot of Jeff Stoutland University– for Pierce to become a major presence on the Eagles offensive line in the coming years.