Philadelphia Eagles rookie QB Clayton Thorson starts off rough

Philadelphia Eagles rookie quarterback Clayton Thorson hasn’t impressed much so far during his first NFL training camp.

This offseason, the Philadelphia Eagles did a lot of focusing on the quarterback position. They made some tough decisions, such as letting Nick Foles walk away and testing free agency. That move caused the Eagles to put a second-round tender on their backup quarterback, Nate Sudfeld. Just because Sudfeld felt like the obvious choice for the backup quarterback position, doesn’t mean he was going to be handed over the role though. He would have to earn it.

Therefore, the Eagles wanted to bring in some competition. Eventually, the Eagles inked veteran quarterback Cody Kessler to a one-year deal. They also selected a quarterback in the fifth round of the 2019 NFL Draft, as Jeffery Lurie expected the front office to do. Since the Eagles are run by an offensive-minded head coach, who happened to be a quarterback, they have an interest in grooming young, up and coming talents with low expectations, but a fair amount of upside.

Nate Sudfeld became the Eagles first project backup, as they brought him on board in 2017. This year, the Eagles will begin to groom their fifth-round pick, who happens to be Northwestern’s, Clayton Thorson. While we expected the Eagles to snag a passer in the draft, Clayton Thorson wasn’t exactly the quarterback that everybody had in mind.

At Northwestern, Thorson established himself as a four-year starter. Just because he was consistently a starter there though didn’t exactly give anybody hope in the pick. Thorson’s production in the NCAA was underwhelming, to say the least.

Just this past season, he threw for 3,183 yards, 17 touchdowns, and 15 interceptions. Thorson completed a career-high of 61-percent of his passes. Known as an inaccurate, and inconsistent quarterback by NFL draft scouts, Thorson hasn’t exactly changed the narrative on himself this offseason. In other words, he’s off to a rough start.

Thorson needs a big preseason to make the team

It’s been less than a week since Eagles training camp kicked off, so there’s plenty of time for improvement. However, with five practices in the books so far, Clayton Thorson has done next to nothing to improve his stock as a late-round draft pick. Between him and Cody Kesseler, there have been some rough patches during the spring and the summer thus far.

The good news for Thorson is that he’s just rookie, and mistakes are to be expected. In this battle for the third-string quarterback spot, the Northwestern product has the upper-hand since Kessler has had his time and failed on multiple occasions.

Thorson has yet to garner any NFL game action, but it’s going to be hard for the Eagles to hand him preseason reps if he’s not earning them in camp. Doug Pederson and the coaching staff have kept their expectations in check, and have remained confident in the rookie passer. But right now, he’s involved in an uphill battle as he continues to struggle with his passing.