Adrian Fedkiw
The Philadelphia Eagles will be without their top wide receiver for “at least” the first two weeks of the 2018 season.
Alshon Jeffery, who played the 2017 season on a torn rotator cuff before getting surgery during the offseason, will reportedly be taken off the PUP list prior to the start of the regular season, according to a report by ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Eagles WR Alshon Jeffery is expected to miss at least the first two games of the season, but the team will activate him to the 53-man roster this weekend with optimism he could be back by week 3, per @mortreport and me.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 28, 2018
Eagles head coach Doug Pederson commented on his progress Tuesday.
Well, first of all, he’s doing well in this rehab. He’s working every day. He’s progressed up to about 75 throws a day and really doing a nice job with that. We’re just going to continue to monitor him and we’ll see where he is at next week and make a decision.
But right now, he’s progressing well; we just got to see his day by day.
The Eagles’ No. 1 wideout Alshon Jeffery never recorded a 100-yard game, but was still rewarded with a four-year, $52 million extension in December. Jeffery’s first year in Philadelphia got off to a rocky start and many questioned whether he was a true No. 1 receiver.
Electing to fight through the pain after signing a one-year deal, Jeffery tallied only 354 yards and two touchdowns over his first seven games. He normally turns 50-50 balls into 80-20 balls, but those 80-20 balls went back to being 50-50 balls last season. He’s known for his strong hands at the catch point and making tough snags through traffic, but we didn’t see as much of that from him either.
Jeffery flipped the switch over his final nine games, putting up 435 yards and seven scores. In the postseason, Jeffery recorded 219 yards and three touchdowns while averaging 18.2 yards a reception.
Alshon Jeffery was doing things like this on a torn rotator cuff, unreal! pic.twitter.com/ToMn7OPOFW
— The Bitter Birds (@AdrianFedkiw) February 21, 2018
With Jeffery out the first two weeks, it puts pressure on Mike Wallace and Mack Hollins to produce on the outside, but I believe Pederson will use his two-to-three tight end sets more to mask deficiencies at the wideout spot. Nelson Agholor will also see more action in the slot.
So expect a lot of Zach Ertz, Dallas Goedert and Agholor in the passing game the first two weeks.
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