Adrian Fedkiw
Jordan Matthews needs to be the leader of the band in 2016 and find himself a back-up vocalist.
The Philadelphia Eagles had the worst set of wide receivers in the NFL last season and it wasn’t close, they can only go up from here — at least you’d think so.
The Eagles led the NFL in drops with 37, according to Sporting Charts, which was six more than their next closest competitor the Oakland Raiders. Six percent of the 620 targets Philadelphia receivers had weren’t hauled in.
Eagles head coach Doug Pederson experimented with Matthews on the outside during voluntary camp, but he’s back to being in the slot. Matthews had the fewest drops among Philly receivers a year ago with five on 128 targets. He posted 997 yards receiving a year ago in Chip Kelly’s up-tempo attack and yes those numbers are a bit deceiving. The Eagles ran the second most plays per game a year ago (69.2) compared to Kansas City, which had the second fewest (59.3). Had Matthews played for the slow and methodical Chiefs, he would’ve only recorded 855 yards receiving. That’s how much of a difference the tempo made.
Who else is going to step up behind Matthew, that’s the more important question. Who will emerge in July and August?
Will it be second-year wideout Nelson Agholor or third-year pro Josh Huff, who have both been disappointments to this point. Or will it come from Rueben Randle or Chris Givens, a pair of cheap offseason free-agent pickups by Howie Roseman.
Roseman has done a solid job of not overspending for average talent at wide receiver as this year’s free-agent class wasn’t highly regarded. The pair of Randle and Givens will make only about $4-million next season. Compare that to Mohamed Sanu, who cashed in with the Atlanta Falcons on a five-year, $32.5 million contract. Randle has outgained Sanu by 551 yards and six touchdowns the past two seasons, and Sanu will be making an average of $6.5 million per year for the next five.
Value!
Randle is the guy to watch for me. Randle doesn’t drop a lot of passes, just three last year and four the season prior, but it’s his inconsistency which made the Giants feel like he was expendable. Randle has shown the ability to make those tough catches in traffic, but then there were those no-show games. He has above-average speed for a 6’2 receiver and runs solid routes, but is somewhat limited athletically and doesn’t do anything great. He relies on winning at the catch point.
Givens is a deep threat and pretty much a one-trick pony, I gave up on Huff a long time ago and then there’s Agholor, who had a dreadful rookie season and ranked 121 out of 121 on Pro Football Focus’ wide receiver list. Agholor averaged 1.8 catches, 21.8 yards and .08 touchdowns per game last year, which paled in comparison to the averages of first-round wideouts over the past decade. They racked up 3.3 catches, 44.4 yards and 0.3 scores per contest.
Agholor is the x-factor in this whole thing. He actually showed flashes in the preseason last year, especially with his run-after-the-catch explosiveness, but then the regular season came around and he couldn’t catch a nose bleed. At least his legal issues have been resolved and he can go back to playing football. Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams announced Monday that charges will not be filed against Agholor after he was accused of sexually assaulting a dancer at Cheerleaders Gentleman’s Club on June 9th.
Huff has shown a few flashes as well, but for every slant pass he snags and picks up several yards after the catch, there’s the drops and fumbles.
Some other names that will be in the wide receiver mix include T.J. Graham, Jonathan Krause, Hunter Sharp, Marcus Johnson, Paul Turner, Xavier Rush and Cayleb Jones.