What's going on, everyone?

Welcome into a special edition of DeCecho Daily.

Andrew DeCechko here, Eagles Beat Reporter for Inside the Birds.com.

And it's a special edition because today I'm joined by one of the premier prospects in the

2006 NFL draft, a 2025 John Mackey Award winner, former Vanderbilt tight end, Eli

Stowers, who's kind enough to spend some time talking with me about his journey.

Eli, thanks for jumping on.

Yeah, of course. Thanks for having me. So I have to ask you, because there are so many demands with this process, what has this draft process been like for you and how have you gone about navigating it? Yeah, I mean, it's just, it's been a blessing for me. And, you know, it's been cool to kind of go through this whole process. Like, you know, just looking back on it, it's something that, you know, I dreamed of going through as a kid and, you know, watching the combine on TV and even went to a couple of pro days as a kid just to watch guys, you know, work out. And so, you know, to be training for this whole thing and be able to talk to teams and all this kind of stuff. It's been a blessing and, you know, I'm just kind of soaking it all in, you know, staying prepared. Um, you know, to be training for this whole thing and be able to talk to teams and all this kind of stuff, it's been a blessing. And, you know, I'm just kind of soaking it all in, you know, staying prepared, you know, trusting in my faith in God and, you know, continue to just put my head down to work. And then we'll see what happens in April. Have you found yourself leaning on anyone in particular for guidance through the process? I mean, I always lean on my faith. like I said, like I'm always talking to God, praying to him and, you know, kind of getting guidance there. But in terms of in, you know, people in my life, like I'd say, you know, my dad kind of went through this process back in the day. And so I talk to him a lot, you know, just every day about what's going on, you know, what's changing anything like that throughout the day. And, you know, just other people that have been through it, you know. I got there's a lot of people in my corner and, you know, thankfully I have a good support system. And so being able to talk to people that, you know, have experience going through the stuff, it's, it's been good for me. Were you always someone of strong faith, Eli? Yeah, I was, I mean, I was born and raised in a Christian household. And, you know, I'm very thankful that my parents, um, raised me and my sister in the church. We grew up going to church and, um, you know, reading the word together, praying. And, um, but I think it, it kind of became more my own, it was more of my parents' faith growing up, you know, kind of just my parents raised us that way, and that's just all I knew.

Eventually it became more of my own faith towards into high school and going into college.

And I learned some things, you know, about the faith.

I started diving deeper into it, getting more into the word,

and it became even more important to me than it already was. So you mentioned your parents.

You come from a decorated background of athletes in your family. So I have to give you an

opportunity here to kind of outline all the athletes that have come before you.

Yeah, sure.

So like I said, my dad, he went through this process back in 94.

He went to the combine.

He played safety in New Mexico State.

He had a short time in the league and then played in the NFL Europe when they had that

going on over in Germany for the Ryan fire.

And then he got straight into coaching after that.

And then my mom, she was a former semi-pro beach volleyball player.

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