The Philadelphia Eagles have one of the best wide receiver duos in the NFL in A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith.
In his two seasons in Philadelphia, Brown has just shy of 200 catches and 3,000 yards. Smith is averaging 1,059 receiving yards per season since the Eagles selected him in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft, and he is having the best training camp so far of his career.
And yet, the Eagles pretty clearly need to trade for a wide receiver.
When training camp began in July, the Eagles hoped a third weapon would emerge from a pack of receivers that included Parris Campbell, Britain Covey, John Ross, Ainias Smith, and Johnny Wilson. That has not happened.
• Parris Campbell: In spring practices, Campbell seemed to be at the top of the WR3 totem pole above the others. He blazed a 4.31 40 at the 2019 NFL Combine, but for such a fast player he has had an oddly low 9.3 yards per catch average over his career. In 2023 with the Giants, a team with trash at receiver, he finished eighth (!) in receiving yards, and he had an almost impossibly low 5.2 yards per catch.He is currently out with a groin injury, and didn't do much in practices before he got hurt. He may not make the team.
• John Ross: Ross, best known for running the fastest 40 time in NFL Combine history (until his time was bested this year), last played in a regular season NFL game in 2021. He too has not done much in camp, and had a chance to make some plays in the Eagles' preseason game against the Ravens, but didn't. He is unlikely to make the team.
• Ainias Smith: Smith is a fifth-round rookie who had surgery to repair a shin fracture this offseason. He struggled in spring practices, in training camp, and the first preseason game, both as a receiver and as a returner. He might be a rare fifth-round pick not to make the team.
The two receivers who have done positive things in camp are Johnny Wilson and Britain Covey, however, neither is an ideal third receiver option.
• Johnny Wilson: Wilson is a sixth-round rookie who has made some plays in training camp, will make the team, and is absolutely worth further development, especially because of his impressive size (6'6, 238), and movement skills. He has also been praised by Jalen Hurts, unprompted, for his work ethic. There are reasons for encouragement. However, any notion that he has been so good in camp that the team should trust him to be the starting WR3 Week 1 is more fantasy than reality. Former Day 3 Eagles draft picks like John Hightower and Quez Watkins, for example, had better rookie training camps than Wilson, in my opinion, and they weren't ready either.
• Britain Covey: Covey is in his third year with the Eagles, and he was arguably the best punt returner in the NFL last season. He has not gotten many opportunities in the regular offense, and only has four career catches for 42 yards. He is perhaps deserving of more opportunities in the regular offense, but his viability as a full-time player is an unknown. Covey is small, at 5'8, 173. If he can contribute in the offense, he is probably a slot receiver only. Because Brown and Smith are both weapons out of the slot and Kellen Moore intends to use them there, the WR3 in the Eagles' offense will need to be able to play both inside and outside.
Does it even matter if the Eagles have a WR3?
Brown, Smith, and to a lesser degree Dallas Goedert will dominate targets in the Eagles' offense. The team will also hope that newcomer Saquon Barkley can be a bigger factor in the passing game than their running backs have been in recent seasons. The WR3 will be the fifth option to get the ball in the Eagles' offense. And so, I've seen it argued that it doesn't really matter if the WR3 can play.
What?!?Of course it matters! It's a starting position!
To begin, what if Brown or Smith go down? As we saw in the Eagles' embarrassing loss to the Buccaneers in the playoffs last season, the offense looked ugly with Brown out. As the roster is currently constructed, they're one injury away from Johnny Wilson becoming the WR2.
In 2023, the Eagles had a trio of receivers who all got opportunities to be the WR3 in Quez Watkins, Olamide Zaccheaus, and Julio Jones. Those three players combined for 36 catches on 60 targets for 380 yards, for a low 6.3 yards per target. In an offense in which defenses were keying on Brown, Smith, and Goedert, their third receivers were inefficient despite favorable matchups.
Jones was washed, Watkins squandered big play opportunities that came his way, and Zaccheaus was a slot guy only who the Eagles could not figure out how to use in their offense.
In 2017, Nelson Agholor had a career year as the WR3, catching 62 passes for 768 yards and 8 TDs. He also had 9 receptions in the Super Bowl against the Patriots, keeping a bunch of drives alive with key first downs. The offense operated at a high level for a lot of reasons that season, and Agholor was a part of that. By contrast, maybe the Eagles have another ring if Watkins had made a play in the Super Bowl against the Chiefs.
Just Quez Watkins ruining another perfect ball from Hurts. Idk when he turned into Jalen Reagor, but don’t you dare say anything about me mocking the Eagles WRs this off-season. pic.twitter.com/UGPhBWUtg7
— Shane Haff (@ShaneHaffNFL) February 13, 2023
Jones, Watkins, and Zaccheaus combined for 1109 snaps in 2023. If the WR3 is going to play that many snaps, wouldn't it be better if that guy is a good player? #Analysis.
Why trade for a wide receiver when you can just sign one off the street?
The Eagles tried signing three guys off the street already. They were DeVante Parker, Parris Campbell, and John Ross. Parker retired after like two OTA practices, and as noted above, Campbell and Ross may not even make the team. The Eagles evidently liked those guys more than the other available options.
So who are the "best available options?"
•Michael Thomas: In 2019, Thomas broke an NFL record with 149 catches (since broken). He gained 1,725 yards and had nine TDs that season. In the four seasons since, he has played in just 20 games and missed 47. In 2023, he publicly accused his quarterback of getting him hurt with a "bad ball," criticized his quarterback for making wrong reads, got into multiple Twitter fights with Saints reporters, and was arrested for allegedlythrowing a brick at a construction worker's truckbecause he didn't like where it was parked, lol. He's probably just not a great guy, and his best playing days are long gone. The Eagles aren't inviting those bad vibes into their building.
•Hunter Renfrow: Renfrow had a big season out of the slot for the Raiders in 2021, when he caught 103 passes for 1,038 yards and nine TDs. His production then fell off a cliff in 2022 and 2023, when he had 61 catches for 585 yards and two TDs in those two seasons combined. Like Covey, Renfrow is a slot receiver only, and thus not a fit for the reasons noted above.
•Corey Davis: Davis was the fifth overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft. He played for four years with the Titans (2017-2020), and two with the Jets (2021-2022). Prior to the 2023 season, he announced that he was "stepping away" from football. In March, he applied for reinstatement, and the Jets released him from their reserve/retired list.While he never came close to living up to his draft status, Davis was a solid enough receiver.His best season was in 2020, when he caught 65 passes for 984 yards (15.1 YPC) and five TDs. In his most recent season with the Jets in 2022, he caught 32 passes for 536 yards (16.8 YPC) and two TDs in a bad Jets offense. He has some big play ability, but Davis' claim to fame is that he is thought of as an extraordinary blocker as a receiver. Perhaps he might make sense as a rich man's Zach Pascal? But again, if the Eagles liked Davis, he'd probably already be in Philly instead of guys like Campbell or Ross.
• JuJu Smith-Schuster: The Eagles reportedly had interest in Smith-Schuster in 2021, but he signed back with the Steelers. When Smith-Schuster became a free agent once again in 2022, the Eagles were not interested, as they had deemed him "immature," according to a source. Smith-Schuster was released by the Patriots, a team in desperate need of help at wide receiver.
In theory, the Eagles could wait for a team to waive a player at 53-man cutdowns, but as a 2023 playoff team they will be low on the waiver claim order, and even if they were to add a player that way, they'd be hoping that some other team's trash could be a quality starter for them. That's fantasy world nonsense.
So then who should they trade for?
It's not like the Eagles would be looking to trade for unhappy star holdouts like CeeDee Lamb or Brandon Aiyuk or something like that. They just need a competent, reliable player who can make the plays that come their way as the WR3, and can hold their own if they need to be the WR2 due to injury. Some ideas we've proposed in the past:
• Adam Thielen, Panthers: Thielen is still a productive, professional receiver who had 103 catches and 1,014 yards on a terrible Panthers team in 2023. He would also be relatively cheap, with a guaranteed $6.5 million salary in 2024, and anywhere between $5.5 and $6.5 million in 2025 if the Eagles chose to keep him around for another season, with no penalty to release him if not. He turns 34 in August, and Carolina isn't anywhere remotely close to contending. They also traded for Diontae Johnson this offseason and selected Xavier Legette in the first round of the 2024 draft. A future Day 3 pick would likely be able to pry Thielen out of situation when he is miscast.
• Noah Brown, Texans:Brown has been in the NFL for six seasons, and it took him a little while to become a productive receiver.He and Kellen Moore were in Dallas together for six seasons. But it was 2023 when Brown had something of a breakthrough season. He had 33 catches for 567 yards (a very good 17.2 YPC) and two TDs in just 10 games. He had two monster games in a pair of Texans shootout wins:
- six catches on six targets for 153 yards and a TD in a 39-37 win over the Bucs.
- seven catches on eight targets for 172 yards in a 30-27 win over the Bengals.
He has good size at 6'2, 215, and plays like it.In 2023, Brown's snaps were about 40:60 slot vs. outside, so he can do both.
Other popular names that I have seen thrown around areTyler Lockett (Seahawks), John Metchie (Texans), and Treylon Burks (Titans).
But, you know, Howie Roseman has the other general managers' phone numbers so he's in a better position than me to see who is actually available. The point is... he should be making those calls.
But should they give up future draft capital to add a third receiver?
Sure, why not? They're Super Bowl contenders, especially in a weak NFC. They currently hold two extra picks in the 2025 draft and an extra pick from the Haason Reddick trade in the 2026 draft. If a future mid-to-late round pick can be used on a player who can make a difference at a position where the current players simply aren't reasonable options, that's a no-brainer.
