Alejandro Villanueva earning praise

One sleeper to watch in Philadelphia appears to be defensive end Alejandro Villanueva.

The military man that spent the past four years in active duty with the U.S. Army has been participating in offseason workouts with the Eagles this spring and summer. And coach Chip Kelly likes what he's seen thus far.

"I've been kind of partially amazed that he could do what he's done," said Chip Kelly, via PhillyMag.com. "He was training such in a different realm, I think he was preparing for a lot of the PT work that he did in the Army, he was running five miles a day. We're certainly not asking our defensive linemen to run five miles a day. There was one day here, you can check with him, I think he went from here to an Army training session and went out and had a couple PT tests that he had to pass and actually one of them was a five?mile test. He nailed it and came back and didn't miss a day."

Villanueva is a 6-9, 277-pounder has played receiver and offensive tackle in the past when he was competing in college. Obviously, his body type now is more suited for the defensive line. Being 6-9 could make things easy for him to bat passes down, that is if he has the athleticism to do.

By no means should this count as an endorsement for Villanueva to make the Eagles' 53-man roster. But it is worth noting that there's an under-the-radar type that is generating at least some kind of buzz.

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