Nolan Carroll's long trip back into the end zone

In the opening game of his senior season at Clay High School near Jacksonville, Fla., Nolan Carroll II, one of the most highly-recruited wide receivers in the talent-rich state, caught a pass on a deep slant route, shook past an oncoming safety and took the ball some 60 yards for a touchdown.

It was a good but unremarkable play in a 2004 high school game, and it is only worth mentioning now because Carroll, who converted to cornerback in college, intercepted an Eli Manning pass on Sunday and returned it for a touchdown.

The significance of the two plays?

"That's the last time I scored a touchdown," Carroll said Wednesday after practice at the NovaCare Complex.

After a span of 11 years and 119 games, Carroll got back on the scoreboard. For the Eagles, it was what they needed to take a 14-7 lead early in the second quarter and complete the momentum swing that put them in control of the game. Carroll jumped the route of Dwayne Harris on the flat and took the ball 17 yards for the score.

It's a long way from the end zone at Clay High to the one at Lincoln Financial Field, but Carroll's path has been an interesting one. Now in his second season with the Eagles, Carroll was used sparingly last year, unable to move ahead of Bradley Fletcher on the depth chart. He wasn't the favorite to win the cornerback competition opposite Byron Maxwell this season - the coaches had high hopes for second-round pick Eric Rowe to step right in - but Carroll came to camp in great shape, got the job and has been solid throughout.

"That's how the league works, man. Some people might be starting in front of you and you think you're better than them, but when you get out there that's when you have to produce," Maxwell said. "When the opportunity comes, you gotta ball, and that's what Nolan's doing."

Carroll, recruited to Maryland as a receiver, switched to cornerback in his sophomore year because he really wanted to play defense. He was taken by Miami in the fifth round of the 2010 draft and worked his way into a starting role during his four seasons with the Dolphins.

"I was a fast receiver. I felt like if you threw the ball up in the air, I was going to catch it," said Carroll, who ran a 4.42-second 40-yard dash at the NFL scouting combine. "I was learning how to play receiver, but for whatever reason I liked defense. They let me switch and I haven't looked back ever since."

In his rookie year with the Dolphins, Carroll had the chance to play alongside former Eagles cornerback Al Harris, a player Carroll admired so much growing up that he wore dreadlocks to emulate him. Harris, now on Andy Reid's staff in Kansas City, was at the end of his career when Carroll arrived in Miami, but he came back in 2012 as an assistant coach and continued to mentor the younger player.

"It was weird playing with him. I couldn't believe it," Carroll said. "I worked out with him to see what his work ethic was like. It really paid off for me in my younger days to learn from a veteran, an all-pro."

There was only one falling out between them, and that was about the dreadlocks, of course.

"He didn't want me to cut them. He'd say, 'Stay strong,' " Carroll said. "And we had, like, six guys with dreadlocks on the team and it seemed like every week another guy would cut them off, and then another guy. I was the last guy. One practice, it was really hot and that hair was dragging me down and I went right from practice to the barbershop and said, 'Take it off.' When Al saw me, he almost cried."

They still stay in touch (and Harris still has his dreads), but even the experience of Harris, who played mostly slot corner behind Troy Vincent and Bobby Taylor during his time with the Eagles, couldn't prepare Carroll for having such a limited role last season.

"I was so used to playing in Miami. I would always be on the field somehow, some way. Sitting and waiting was something I really had to mentally adjust to. You just stay prepared," Carroll said. "[This season], they told us as a group that if you come out and do your work and do what you're supposed to do, you'll get on the field. That's just the way I took it. The timing had to be right. Last year, I was working some things out. This year, I'm comfortable with everything. It was just something I had to get through."

Carroll got through it the same way he fought through the pick to reach the flat on Sunday. He stepped in front, grabbed the ball and then raced 11 years into his own past, all the way to the end zone. The shadow of the young high school receiver from Green Cove Springs, Fla., followed the footsteps of the veteran NFL cornerback as he ran, but even that speedy memory couldn't catch Nolan Carroll on this night. It had been too long.

bford@phillynews.com

@bobfordsports