Who is the new Philadelphia Eagles QB Ian Book?

The final roster cut down day is one of the busiest days in the NFL calendar. Roughly 800 players are released or traded by their respective teams — including, of course, the Philadelphia Eagles — in the process of getting the rosters down to the 53 man limit. This leaves a ton of talented players changing zip codes or looking for work elsewhere.

Sometimes these players are picked up immediately, sometimes they’re signed to a practice squad and sometimes they see their NFL careers come to an end.

Things are no different here in Philadelphia, a few fan favorites such as Devon Allen and Britain Covey were handed their walking papers, veterans like Anthony Harris and Jaquiski Tartt were surprisingly released, Jalen Reagor was shipped out to Minnesota via trade and CJ Gardener-Johnson was brought in from New Orleans. With all of the moves made since the final cutdown it’s easy to overlook that there is a new QB in town.

Quarterback Ian Book is a great fit for the Philadelphia Eagles system.

After Reid Sinnett was released, the general consensus was that the Birds would roll with two QBs on their active roster, that was until Ian Book  signed with the team less than 24 hours after the final cutdown period. With the acquisition of Book, Davion Taylor, a 2020 third round draft pick who struggled this preseason, was waived to make room for the former Fighting Irish quarterback.

For those that don’t know, Book started the majority of three seasons in South Bend, he won over 30 games, finished top 10 in Heisman voting in 2020 and helped take Notre Dame to the College Football Playoffs twice. To say he had an illustrious career at Notre Dame would be an understatement.

He was selected in the fourth round of the 2021 NFL Draft by the Saints, but a logjam at QB in the bayou put him on the outside looking in and he was ultimately released. The Eagles, clearly unimpressed with both Reid Sinnett and Carson Strong in the preseason, jumped all over Ian Book and signed him to the active roster within 24 hours of him hitting the street.

On paper, Book fits the bill of what Philadelphia wants at quarterback far more than the aforementioned Strong and Sinnett.

Hurts, and to a lesser extent Gardner Minshew, are quarterbacks capable of breaking the pocket and extending/making plays with their legs, Book is in the same mold. He is an extremely talented athlete, running for over 1,500 yards and 17 TDs in his time at Notre Dame, having that ability makes him a much better fit into the Sirianni/Steichen offense if he were to be called into duty.

Book is certainly a work-in-progress so expectations shouldn’t be too high for the young quarterback, he has had his fair share of struggles with accuracy and looked pedestrian in his only regular season action last year. Despite his troubles with accuracy he has a decent arm and is a smart football player, for a project quarterback who (hopefully) won’t see the field often, you can do far worse.

His combination of athleticism, arm strength and history of winning make him another solid piece of what’s turning out to be one heck of a roster for the Philadelphia Eagles.