On Thursday, general manager Howie Roseman did a conference call with members of the Philadelphia sports media. Among the handful of the interesting comments he made, Roseman essentially confirmed wideout Alshon Jeffery is still in the team’s plans moving forward, despite the majority of the fanbase believing his days in Philly were numbered.
Roseman continued to defend the veteran wideout when he appeared on Angelo Cataldi’s morning show on 94 WIP today. When asked specifically about Alshon’s relationship with Carson Wentz, Roseman said the following:
“There’s no issue with Carson and Alshon. There’s no issue, and they’ll tell you that. I think from our perspective, Alshon has to get healthy. When he’s healthy, he’s a good player, but he’s gotta get healthy, and that’s the first order of business, for him to get healthy. I think the narrative about Alshon as a player – and I just hear this, (Eagles Director of Public Relations) Brett (Strohsacker) does a great job of keeping me up to date – isn’t really fair. This is a guy who has been a really good player for us, it’s not a guy who is tremendously old, so we gotta get him healthy and get him right, and then go from there.”
So, were we just all wrong about Alshon? Is he even the anonymous source who criticized Wentz to ESPN’s Josina Anderson? My guess is as good as anyone’s at this point.
Roseman puts a lot of emphasis on Alshon’s health in his statement above, as he did during his conference call as well. It leads me to believe Alshon played the majority of last season battling through injury. Aside from the Lisfranc foot injury that ended his season, Jeffery also got banged up in week 2 against Atlanta, leading to him miss that game as well as the following game against the Detroit Lions.
When healthy, Jeffery has been a solid receiver for this team, and easily the best wideout on the team for about three years now — although that may not be saying much.
Last season was his worst season since his rookie campaign, but with the numerous injuries he dealt with, is it fair for us to expect that type of outing again next year? I’m starting to think he may have a bounce back year.
Initially, I thought Alshon was as good as gone. But, if there is no beef between him and Carson and he’s able to get healthy before the start of next season (which sounds like the no. 1 priority for Alshon), I could see the 30-year-old wideout still being a big contributor to this offense in 2020.
If he can play up to the ability he showcased in 2017 and ’18, fans will jump right back in Alshon’s corner.
Whether or not me or you believe in Alshon really doesn’t matter at the end of the day. This organization has defended him at every turn, so they clearly believe he still has the potential to be a great weapon for Wentz and this offense.