April 09, 2019

Report: Eagles sign quarterback Luis Perez

By Jimmy Kempski
PhillyVoice Staff

According to Adam Caplan of Sirius XM radio, the Philadelphia Eagles will be signing former Alliance of American Football quarterback Luis Perez, who played for the Birmingham Iron.

#Eagles are signing former AAF QB Luis Perez to a 1-year deal, source said.
— Adam Caplan (@caplannfl) April 9, 2019

We've covered Perez here already, so some of what you read below is new, some isn't.

Back in February, we noted three AAF players who might make sense for the Eagles, and we featured Perez, who reportedly impressed NFL scouts after the AAF's first week of games. Interestingly, it was Perez's media session that stood out to some, via Chris Mortensen of ESPN:

Impressive @TheAAF debut by @PerezLuisQB for the Birmingham Iron on Sunday. Got a couple of texts during game from veteran NFL personnel people about him and his post-win @aafIron media session shows his maturity. https://t.co/93kHMdxG0u via @YouTube
— Chris Mortensen (@mortreport) February 11, 2019

Because of the tough nature of the Philadelphia media, when the Eagles bring in players for their 30 allotted pre-draft visits, they set up mock press conferences in which team employees ask difficult questions and try to rattle the young prospects. It was a piece of the process in which Carson Wentz impressed the team. It may sound silly to put stock in that kind of thing, but it is something that the team absolutely cares about, especially at the quarterback position.

Perez went to Division II Texas A&M Commerce, where he posted the following stats:

Luis Perez	Comp-Att (Comp %)	Yards (YPA)	TD-INT
2016	244-389 (62.7%)	3326 (8.6)	32-5
2017	421-596 (70.6%)	4999 (8.4)	46-11

However, his journey to the NFL hardly began at Texas A&M Commerce. Watch the following video about Perez's backstory. It's well worth your time:

Former Birmingham Iron QB Luis Perez tells me that he’s agreed to a 1-year deal with the #Eagles. He spent some time on the #Rams practice squad last season.

His story is pretty awesome. Take it away @PSchrags... pic.twitter.com/Mz4jt3h9Si
— NFL Update (@MySportsUpdate) April 9, 2019

As a player, Perez has good size at 6-foot-3, 222 pounds. He's not the fleetest of foot and he doesn't exactly have a cannon for an arm, but his touch and accuracy looked good in Week 1 of the AAF season. Here are all of his throws in the Iron's first game:

Perez ended the season with pretty crappy numbers. He completed 135 of 258 passes (52.3%) for 1460 yards (5.7 YPA), 5 TDs and 6 INTs, though personally, I have no idea what to make of stats -- good or bad -- from that league. The Iron finished the season with a 5-3 record.

To be determined if the Eagles view Perez as a legitimate No. 3 quarterback worth developing, or if they see him as a camp arm. Plucking a quarterback from the AAF instead of using a draft pick on one makes sense, but I'm not certain it closes the door completely on the team drafting one in the later rounds later this month.

From Perez's perspective, it absolutely makes sense to join the Eagles for a chance to make the team, seeing as the Eagles have had obvious success developing Wentz, Nick Foles, and Nate Sudfeld.