As we do every offseason, we'll be comparing each of the Philadelphia Eagles' rookies to current or former NFL players. We finished up with the drafted rookies yesterday, but just for fun, as a bonus, let's find a comp for undrafted free agent quarterback Carson Strong, since many thought of him as a Day 2 type of prospect.
Previous player comp profiles
Jordan Davis | Cam Jurgens | Nakobe Dean | Kyron Johnson | Grant Calcaterra
In his three years as Nevada's starting quarterback, Strong posted the following numbers:
| Carson Strong | Comp-Att (Comp %) | Yards (YPA) | TD-INT |
| 2019 | 237-374 (63.4%) | 2335 (6.2) | 11-7 |
| 2020 | 249-355 (70.1%) | 2858 (8.1) | 27-4 |
| 2021 | 367-524 (70.0%) | 4186 (8.0) | 36-8 |
As you can see, he completed over 70 percent of his passes both in 2020 and 2021.
Strong has good height, a compact delivery, decent arm strength, good accuracy in the short-to-intermediate areas of the field, and he can decisively get the ball out quickly. A highlight reel:
On the downside, he's not a factor as a runner, and he has potential long-term knee issues, as described by nevadesportsnet.com:
Carson Strong missed his senior season of high school in 2017 after knee surgery when an MRI revealed an osteochondritis dissecans lesion and resulted in eight biodegradable nails being inserted to mend a crack in his lateral femoral condyle bone.
I understood a few of those words. More recently, there was concern over whether Strong would be ready for the start of the 2021 season:
In January, Strong had surgery on the same knee to clean up cartilage after he felt some uneasiness in the knee during his breakout 2020 season. Prior to the start of fall camp this month, Strong has an arthroscopy to clear out scar tissue in the knee. Strong was a full participant in Nevada's first fall camp practice Aug. 6, although his knee was bleeding heavily after the session. Strong has since had to have the knee drained a couple of times and has been limited to watching practice from a golf cart in recent sessions.
😬.
Strong's injury history is no doubt the reason he did not get drafted.
So who does he remind me of?
That's right! Sam Bradford, AKA Sammy Sleeves, AKA Sleevie Wonder. Why?
- They're both very accurate passers with plenty of arm strength to make all the throws.
- Modest yards per pass attempt, relative to a 70+ percent completion percentage.
- They have roughly the same build (Strong is a half inch shorter and 2 pounds heavier).
- They both have knees made of pudding and papier-mâché, which sapped their ability to make plays with their feet and made them major injury risks.
To be clear, we're not referring to the Sammy Sleeves that went No. 1 overall to the Rams in the 2010 NFL Draft. We're more referring to the mid-to-late-career Sleeves who could still throw, but was essentially a statue in the pocket and you held your breath every time he got hit.
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