By Tucker Bagley, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 
One of the best parts of the NFL Draft is the inspirational stories that are told throughout the three-day event. For just a weekend, we get to witness young men achieve their ultimate dreams after years of hard work and adversity.
As these players' stories are told next weekend, it will be hard to not root for these guys during their career, no matter what team they play for.
Haason Reddick, LB, Temple
From SI.com:
He was injured in high school and had to walk on at Temple, meaning he needed to have an edge on just about everyone to merely get noticed. He turned heads almost immediately, and the Owls progressed under coach Matt Rhule, who is now at Baylor.
Current Temple coach Geoff Collins noted that one of the first things he discovered when replacing Rhule was how dedicated Reddick is.
''It's the way he approaches the game,'' Collins says. ''I've been blessed to coach a lot of great players on defense (at Florida), and the first thing you see is Haason popping up on tape all over the place. The day after he just dominated the combine, he's in here working at 6 a.m.
''He's relentless.''
Reddick's rise during the past few months has taken him from early Day 2 pick to potentially being selected in the Top-10 picks of the first round.
The former Owl is a versatile defender who could fill a lot of roles in Jim Schwartz's defense, but it's starting to look like Reddick won't be on the board by the time the Eagles make their first pick at 14. Still, Reddick is a local guy who went from walk on to phenom.
Elijah Qualls, DT, Washington
Sheil Kapadia of ESPN.com has the story on Qualls, who is expected to be picked in the second or third round:
Qualls remembers being excited when he made plans with his friends before that tragic weekend in 2010. It wasn't a special occasion or anything. They would just go to the park, hang out, crack jokes, flirt with girls. Qualls was a high school sophomore living in the Oak Park section of Sacramento, California.
For some reason, Qualls can't remember why, plans changed. He decided to stay home that night. It might have been the most meaningful decision of his life. He later found out three of his friends had been shot and killed.
If you read one story this week, make it this one.
Qualls developed into a tremendous defensive tackle in college after spending his high school days playing running back and linebacker. With the addition of Tim Jernigan a few weeks ago, the Eagles don't have a dire need for a defensive tackle right now, but maybe using a third- or fourth-round pick on Qualls would help shore up the position for the future.
James Conner, RB, Pittsburgh
We've talked about Conner a few times in our mock drafts, but his story is still very inspirational. From Jeff Reynolds of CBSSports.com:
When his phone rang on Thanksgiving Day in 2015, Conner knew things were off-center. Doctors don’t make many holiday calls.
Doctors diagnosed Conner with stage 2 Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system. Chemotherapy began immediately. A season-ending knee injury was no longer a concern. Conner urinated red — stop sign, fire engine, ripe tomato red — after his first treatment, a daylong, solemn workout of another kind for which he was unprepared and could never have trained.
Conner swallowed the news rather than “ruin someone’s holiday,” but told his mom.
In addition to surviving cancer, Conner has also dealt with a torn MCL in 2015, one year after being named ACC Player of the Year.
Of all these players, Conner remains the best fit for the Birds. A tough, bruising running back, Conner could add a dimension to the Eagles backfield that is currently missing with the absence of Ryan Mathews. If Howie Roseman and Joe Douglas don't want to use a high pick on a 'back, adding Conner on Day 3 would be a huge upgrade.
Larry Ogunjobi, DT, Charlotte
A huge unknown to most fans, Ogunjobi is the first major prospect the Charlotte football program has produced and Pat James of the Charlotte Observer has the story on how he went from an at-risk teenager to NFL prospect:
Eating and playing video games all day, Ogunjobi gained weight rapidly, peaking at roughly 350 pounds before his sophomore year.
“You’re killing yourself,” he remembers his parents saying. “You’ve got stop this.”
A stint at a local gym was short-lived after Ogunjobi didn’t receive the training his parents paid for. Then came Robert Mitchell, an angel in disguise.
A fitness coach running a summer program, Mitchell offered to help Ogunjobi lose weight. And he did, dropping 30 pounds. On a Friday afternoon just before school started, Mitchell drove him to Ragsdale High in Jamestown.
“You’re going to play football,” Mitchell told him.
Ogunjobi has developed into one of the most athletic defensive tackles in the draft, possessing the type of speed that allows him to chase quarterbacks and ball carriers all over the field. Projected as a late-round pick, Ogunjobi's price tag seems to fall in line with what the Eagles are willing to pay for a rotational defensive tackle.
