Ian Book didn't impress during his stint with the New Orleans Saints.

In the preseason Book's performances were turnover-heavy and offensively stagnant. Still, Philadelphia took a flyer on him to be the third-string quarterback because of coach Nick Sirianni's relationship with Tommy Rees — Notre Dame's offensive coordinator — who holds a positive opinion of Book as a quarterback.

“I really trust Tommy's opinion,” Sirianni said. “And obviously we trust our own eyes, we trust our own scouts, but a lot of work went into that.

“One thing Tommy always said about him, and now this is a guy that won a ton of football games for him and his program at Notre Dame, is how good of a leader he is. How there would be weeks or days that went by that the ball didn't touch the ground because of how accurate he is. So, we're excited to work with the tools that he has. We know he'll fit in well with the room and fit in well with the locker room.”

Book was a fourth-round pick by the Saints in 2021. He started one game in his rookie season, and he looked in over his head.

Still, Sirianni kept his eye out for him. Maybe it had something to do with Book's 9,000 yards with 72 touchdowns while he played for Notre Dame. Or maybe it is the fact that Book is the winningest quarterback in Notre Dame history. Regardless, Sirianni truss Rees' opinion of Book and liked what he saw enough to at least see what Book can do as a third-string option.

“We did a lot of work on him in the pre-draft process, obviously,” Sirianni said. “Naturally, when you don't get a guy sometimes that you might want, there's a little bit of, like, ‘Oh, man, I kind of wanted him; oh, shoot, they took him,’ or whatever it is. But you do the work in preparation for a day when you have an opportunity to potentially get him.”

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Feature image via  Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports.