When it comes to the Philadelphia Eagles, Undrafted Free Agents are nothing to shake a stick at. Whether it's immediate snaps or a couple years of development, the Eagles know how to get the most out of players who have a chip on their shoulder.
In 2017, Corey Clement was a rookie UDFA and ended up being the leading pass catcher in Super Bowl LII. T.J. Edwards went undrafted in 2019, had a lot of playing time on special teams, and then became a pivotal piece of the Eagles' defense in the 2022 Super Bowl run. Hell, Reed Blankenship was a UDFA in 2022; in 2023, he became one of the starting safeties, and then he just kept the job.
Howie Roseman’s Eagles have had some pretty solid success finding diamonds in the rough, refining them, and turning them into dudes. Maxen Hook might be the guy this year.
The Eagles are taking a chance on a special teams Rocket
What seems more realistic: Howie Roseman drafting a cornerback from Toledo when a cornerback from Alabama was available, or a UDFA from Toledo being a contributor on special teams? Probably the latter, but the first one still happened.
Enter Maxen Hook, the safety from Toledo.
The most important thing to remember about any defensive player the Eagles either draft, trade for, or sign is that Vic Fangio is probably cool with them. If he likes a player, then it’s more than likely that there is something special about them.
Hook is six feet tall and 200-ish pounds, was a Toledo Rocket for his entire career, and he was All-MAC all four years as a starter; three of those years he was a first-teamer. It wouldn’t surprise me if there’s an NFL-caliber player in there.
In Lance Zierlein’s draft profile of him on NFL.com, it says, “...He’s rangy over the top in coverage and plays with tremendous hustle to rack up tackles. His urgency also comes with missed run fits and occasional coverage mistakes when teams use misdirection against him. He has average pop as a tackler, but has cut down on his misses. He plays the game with passion and will be an instant contributor on special teams. Hook could develop into a solid backup with the flexibility to play interchangeably at safety.”
It’d be easy to say Hook could follow Reed Blankenship’s path as a UDFA, where he sticks around on the depth chart and then slides in on defense if there’s an injury.
There are two problems with that: In 2022, the Eagles only had a couple of safeties on their depth chart. When C.J. Gardner-Johnson went down with a lacerated kidney, Blankenship only had to be better than K’Von Wallace to get playing time. That’s not exactly a tough thing to do.
Now, the Eagles have a boatload of safeties that Hook would have to beat out, including a couple of guys (Lewis Cine, Sydney Brown, Drew Mukuba) who have really high draft pedigree. Hook would have to be a killer if he’s going to be higher on the depth chart than a couple of those guys.
The other problem is that Blankenship didn’t really play a whole lot of special teams; he only played 90 total special teams snaps (33% of the snaps) in his rookie year. That’s a pretty small amount. When it comes to making the 53-man roster as a UDFA, the best and most common way to do it is by being valuable on special teams.
If Zierlein’s right and Hook can be a good special teamer, that seems like it’ll be the spot where he can make the team and have playing time that matters… while also being a depth safety.
The problem is that there are only 53 roster spots. I sneaky think Sydney Brown is on the hot seat. The Eagles drafted him in the third round of the 2023 draft, so that means someone in the building was a fan of him.
This goes back to Fangio; he wasn’t in the building at that point. If Sean Desai liked Sydney Brown in 2023, that’s totally cool, but Sean Desai isn’t Vic Fangio.
Brown had a tough time finding his way onto the field last season. Was that because he was still nursing the torn ACL from the end of the 2023 season, was it because Fangio didn’t trust him, or was it because he might stink? Hopefully it’s not the last option because he’s a ton of fun to watch, but there’s no way of knowing at this point.
He did have 205 special teams snaps last season (68%). That’s a workload a UDFA like Hook could handle. It seems like if Fangio wants to keep a UDFA on the 53, Hook would have to get a majority, if not all of those snaps.
The point here is that the Eagles start their OTAs at the end of May, and it’s a good idea to keep an ear out for Maxen Hook. If he’s serviceable in the seven-on-seven drills, then it doesn’t seem far-fetched that he could become a key special teamer. Also, his name rocks, and he's friends with Quinyon Mitchell, so that counts for something too.