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“I WILL!” Jalyx Hunt yelled from across the Eagles’ locker room, holding the NFC Championship trophy.
Rookie Will Shipley had just had the best game of his young NFL career, forcing a special teams fumble and scoring his first NFL touchdown in relief of Saquon Barkley during the eagles 55-23 win over Washington.
“He was a hoop!” Hunt said.
Before this year, Shipley had never played on special teams other than as a punter. After Sunday’s game, he was more excited about his forced fumble than the touchdown.
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“It was a big learning curve for me,” Shipley said. “I’m just trying to produce and mean something to this team the way I’ve done in the past. When I was able to get in there and make my first forced fumble just before halftime, Kenny Gainwell picked it up and we were able to score before halftime. It really changes the momentum. We call those average eight minutes. We controlled them. I was just so pumped.”
Shipley, the Eagles’ fourth-round pick in the 2024 draft, is known for his versatility — offensively. He was a first-team All-American in 2022. as a versatile player. But entering the league as the Eagles’ third running back behind Barkley and Gainwell, Shipley had to learn to adjust.
“To come in and be as humble as he is, accepting a new role, was amazing,” Hunt said. “He’s an experienced player at this point. His mindset is what really sets him apart. His room is – we probably have, in my opinion, the MVP of the league (Barkley). Behind him you have (Gainwell) who would start anywhere else and just to be able to learn and be humble and soak up everything he can from them. It’s amazing and a testament to his mentality.”
Shipley works on special teams, but on Sunday he also got a chance to step in at running back after Gainwell left the game with a concussion. Looking like Barkley, who ripped off a 60-yarder on the first play of the game, Shipley made the longest run of his young career, a 57-yarder, from nearly the same spot and nearly took it to the house.
A few plays later, Shipley finally found his way into the end zone for the first touchdown of his NFL career, and Barkley, who rushed down the sideline to congratulate the rookie, was over the moon.
“Just celebrating with the guys is all I can ask for,” Shipley said. “Saquon came down and met me in the end zone. I sat on the floor and watched Jordan Mailataand just so much appreciation for, you know, every single one of my teammates, every single one of my coaches. It was a surreal moment, but everything I had planned went out the window.
The next time, Shipley said he hoped he would be able to end the big streak with a touchdown, but he ended up getting there, scoring a touchdown that set the NFL record for most points by a team in an NFC Championship game.
Quinnan Mitchell and Cooper De Jean are getting most of the headlines in this rookie class, for good reason. Both are finalists for Defensive Rookie of the Year. But the success of this rookie class goes beyond just those two. Hunt, Shipley and Jeremiah Trotter Jr. have all carved out roles on this Eagles team on special teams and are making their way on offense and defense. They have also become close friends, learning from each other and pushing each other to be better.
Shipley is just the latest rookie to have a breakout performance this season — and it came in the biggest game of the year so far, with a trip to Super Bowl on the line.
“The whole rookie class just bonded over those longer hours during OTAs, sitting here, doing rookie meetings, all that good stuff, going out to dinner together,” Shipley said. “It was a great experience getting to know guys from different areas, different places. We all feel like we contribute and make a difference on this team. We are proud of that.”
