If Josh Adams was disappointed going undrafted, he’s not letting on.
“I wasn’t down,” he said. “I had my family with me. It was a great opportunity for me to be with my family and enjoy the moment. From the end of round seven, I was ready to go.
“That was an experience in its own and I’m blessed to say I was a part of that, but I’m here now and I’m ready to move forward.”
So going undrafted after rushing for 3,198 yards, 20 touchdowns and a 6.6 rushing average didn’t motivate you?
“I’m always motivated,” Adams said with a shrug.
If Adams seems a little different, he is. He's got a rosy outlook about everything. Even joining an Eagles team with a seeming glut at running back.
There’s Jay Ajayi, there’s Matt Jones now, there’s Corey Clement, Wendell Smallwood, Donnel Pumphrey, Darren Sproles.
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Where will he fit in?
“You just focus on what you can control and you work,” he said after practice Friday.
“You can never watch what anyone else is doing, you can only worry about what you’re doing. We’re all part of the team, we’re all trying to help the team win. So when one person gets better, everybody gets better. I’m just looking to do my part.”
Adams is an interesting guy. He stands 6-2, 225, so he’s got good size, and he’s fast enough to rank among the leaders in yards per carry in college football each of the last three seasons. In fact, his 6.6 career average is eighth-best in Division I over the last 10 years.
He was limited at practice Friday because a foot injury that he says isn’t serious — he said he’d be back “sooner than later.”
But a year after Clement made the 53-man roster and wound up becoming a Super Bowl hero as an undrafted rookie from the Philly suburbs, Adams — a Warrington native and Central Bucks South graduate — is trying to do the same thing.
“He came here and he worked, like everybody else, so that’s where we’re here to do,” Adams said. “Everybody is here (trying to make the team), regardless of how they got here.”
Adams grew up in Bucks County watching Donovan and T.O., Brian Westbrook and LeSean McCoy.
“But once I started playing I started watching less and less and started focusing on what I was trying to do,” he said. “But my whole family is excited about the Eagles and they’re loving it.”
Adams had a lot of options, and at least on paper some of them may have offered a better chance at a spot on the 53-man roster.
But he said he felt wanted in Philly, and it was just that simple.
"You want to go somewhere where they want you and you want to be there, so just talking with them and thinking about what I wanted, it was just the best place for me personally to try to better myself,” he said.
“All I need is an open door, you know? All I need is for a team to say, ‘It would be great to have you a part of this organization, this program.’
“That could have been any team that they said that I’m ready to go day one. But this was definitely the place.”