The Eagles traded TE Harrison Bryant to the Texans in exchange for some draft picks and WR John Metchie, making him the seventh potential roster spot at the position. Adding another receiver isn’t exactly an expected move, but Howie Roseman is always working, and apparently saw an opportunity to add the young playmaker.
Both A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith have dealt with injuries at points throughout the offseason, but the rest of the WR room has been pretty impressive through two preseason games. Saturday’s loss to the Browns featured pretty bad QB play and an OL that struggled, so there weren’t as many opportunities for the Eagles receivers to do much — fortunately, they did get some good evaluation tape against the Bengals when Tanner McKee was at the helm.
Eagles’ head coach Nick Sirianni spoke after the team’s first preseason game against the Bengals, and gave some insights into how the competition for those bottom roster spots is shaking out.
“Jahan [Dotson] obviously did a really good job tonight. We wanted to get him a couple touches and let him go to work as the number one receiver, but then you’ve got a lot of good competition and competition brings out the best in guys, so I’m looking forward to seeing how that race kind of plays itself.”
“Johnny did a lot of things for us and continues to do a lot of things for us in our rush offense last year that was number one with some of the blocks that he had, and he was really good on special teams.
It takes guys time to develop into pass catchers against the different coverages that he’s seen in the NFL. I think he did a really nice job adjusting to the football, making some really nice plays [against the Bengals]. Tanner [McKee] put the ball on him. I thought the one that he had adjusted to on the back shoulder where he kind of turned and caught it was really good. Did a good job with his fundamentals, getting to his back so the ball didn’t pop out. We saw the ball pop out with Jihaad [Campbell] on his interception opportunity, but Johnny did a good job of getting to his back. He did a lot of good things and he’s one of our really tough players.“
“I think [Darius Cooper] has a lot of good tools, catches the ball obviously really well. Those are some tough catches that he made today, particularly on some of those shallows. That fourth-down shallow was like a perfect ball by Tanner [McKee] with some traffic. I think they were in two-man and he just made a really nice catch there. He’s continuing to get better, learning all the different spots that he needs to play. I think he’s got an opportunity to do some good things.”
“This is one of the biggest transitions from college to pro is that receiver position. You get more contested catches now. It’s a lot tighter coverage, but I think we’ve always seen the explosive ability to change directions by Ainias [Smith]. You saw it on the punt return there where he made the guy miss and went for a big gain. That’s all over his college tape and we get to see that in practice quite a bit. He did a good job. He’s scrappy and I think that you’re seeing a good competition for those back end of the rosters.”
So, what now? They added John Metchie — one of Smith’s best friends — to the group, over halfway through training camp, and have to figure out how many WRs to keep, and who they can bring back on the practice squad. BGN’s Brandon Lee Gowton suggested Ainias Smith might be more likely to survive waivers and return to Philly than Darius Cooper, but notes Smith’s special teams contributions might tip the scales.
How many WRs do you think the Eagles keep on the final 53-man roster? (And who are they keeping?) Let us know in the comments!
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