Jason Huntley was a big-play running back at New Mexico State, and when the Lions chose him in the fifth round of the draft, the Eagles were disappointed to see a third-day player they wanted go off the board. So when the Lions waived Huntley as part of their 53-man roster cutdowns, the Eagles weren’t going to let him get away.
Eagles coach Doug Pederson was pumped when Huntley became available.
“We are excited about this player,” Pederson said, via Mike Kaye of NJ.com. “Excited about Huntley, excited to get him in the mix.”
The Eagles didn’t need to do any research on Huntley because they already knew he had big-time speed and had more than 2,000 rushing yards, more than 1,500 kickoff return yards and more than 1,000 receiving yards in his college career.
“He was a guy, a player that we had actually targeted back in the draft and through the draft process,” Pederson said. “He was on our draft board with many guys but obviously he caught our eye back then when we were evaluating running backs.”
It’s not known yet whether Huntley will be up to speed enough in the Eagles’ offense to be active in Week One, but the Eagles believe he can contribute as a rookie.