Two games into Travis Fulgham’s career with the Eagles and things are looking pretty good.
Fulgham caught a huge go-ahead touchdown pass two weeks ago against the 49ers and then followed it up with a 10-catch, 152-yard, 1-touchdown performance against the Steelers.
Will we one day look back at these two games as a short-lived but fun memory in an otherwise forgettable season? Or will we look back at them as the start of a long and productive NFL career?
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Carson Wentz has seen enough.
“I think he showed last week that there was no fluke,” Wentz said on Wednesday. “The big touchdown catch against the Niners, I think he showed last week that it wasn’t a fluke. He’s a big-time player and we’ve seen what he’s done in practice now for a while and how he’s kind of come along within our offense, within our system.
“With the injuries and everything going around, he was the next guy up. We looked out there and said, ‘Hey, we’re confident in this guy to get it done.’ And he’s been making play after play. I think he’s got a bright future ahead of him.”
The Eagles are 1-3-1 but Fulgham’s emergence in their offense has been one of the brightest spots during the first five weeks of the season. Fulgham didn’t even become an Eagle until Aug. 20, when the Birds claimed him off waivers. When the Eagles released him at final cuts, it was his third time being waived within the span of a month.
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But Fulgham (6-2, 215) impressed the Eagles’ coaches enough during his short time in training camp to earn a practice squad spot and continued impressing them in that role. So as receivers kept going down with injury, Fulgham was signed to the active roster the day before the 49ers game.
That alone would be a great story.
But then you add in the fact that Fulgham didn’t really begin playing football until later in his high school career after growing up mostly overseas and the fact that he worked his way up from being a walk-on at Old Dominion to becoming a sixth-round draft pick and it’s even more incredible.
Fulgham is a great story. But what if he can be more than that?
That’s the real question, right?
Well, going for 10/152/1 doesn’t just happen. In fact, he’s just the third player to put up those numbers this year and the other two are George Kittle and Davante Adams.
Since the start of the 2019 season there have been 11 players to go for 10/152/1 and Fulgham is keeping company with some of the best players in the game: Kittle, Adams, Tyreek Hill, Mike Evans, Tyler Lockett, Amari Cooper, Will Fuller, Michael Thomas, Chris Godwin, Keenan Allen.
Wentz has become a believer in Fulgham but he’s not the only one. A lot of Eagles have been impressed with the second-year receiver since he arrived. Jalen Mills is happy to take credit for noticing early.
“From his first week in coming in camp, I literally would sit on the sideline, I didn’t know he came from Detroit until I was talking to (Darius) Slay one day,” Mills said, “and I was like, Oh, this No. 13 — I think at times at practice he was No. 6 or something like that — but I was like, this dude right here always catches the ball.
“And every time he catches it, he’s off the ground. Whether, it’s digs, out routes, go balls, he was jumping and catching it at the highest point.”
Doug Pederson has acknowledged that the Eagles will have some decisions to make as DeSean Jackson and Alshon Jeffery (and eventually Jalen Reagor) return from their injuries. But it would be awfully hard to take Fulgham off the field at this point. He looks like the real deal.