Shortly after Daryl Worley arrived on the campus of West Virginia as a freshman, he was approached by wide receivers coach Lonnie Galloway with a proposition. Galloway looked at the Mountaineers' depth chart and told Worley that the best thing he could do for his career would be to transition to cornerback.
Those ball skills from wide receiver helped him notch 10 career interceptions and first-team All-Big 12 honors as a junior.
The 6-1, 2015-pound Worley was a third-round pick of the Panthers in 2016 and started 25 games in his first two seasons playing on the outside, tying for the team lead with 17 pass deflections in that timeframe.
Worley was on an excursion in the Bahamas when his agent tried to notify him that he was being traded to the Eagles in exchange for wide receiver Torrey Smith. Worley was in an area where his phone didn't get service. When he got back to the port, he was deluged with missed calls, text, and voicemails from friends and family about the news.
Unsure of who to contact, he reached out to his father, Kenneth, to let him know he was coming home.
"I don't know what gave me more joy," Worley said at his press conference, "coming back home or initially getting drafted."
Raised in North Philadelphia near Temple Hospital, Worley's parents still live in the same area. Worley attended Penn Charter High School where he played wide receiver and safety before heading to Morgantown, West Virginia. He's a lifelong Eagles fan who said "that's all I knew for a long time" when it came to football.
Worley appreciates the opportunity and joins a locker room with a slew of young defensive backs including his former teammate at West Virginia, Rasul Douglas, Ronald Darby, Sidney Jones, and Jalen Mills. Darby, entering his fourth season, is the most experienced veteran of the bunch.
"Just to be able to come around a great group of guys like that is going to be awesome, being able to come in and compete and just to be able to get after it with guys that are so like-minded and have the same amount of experience as you while at the same time being able to learn from older guys like Malcolm (Jenkins) and other guys that are around, it's going to be awesome," he said.
In addition to Douglas, Worley was a roommate of wide receiver Shelton Gibson as a freshman and also knows running back Wendell Smallwood as well from West Virginia. Worley is in a new situation but has the support system of familiar faces in the locker room and his family behind him.
