Eagles fans are some of the hardest fans to satisfy in professional sports, and that was evident last night after the team selected TCU wideout Jalen Reagor with the No. 21 overall selection.
On one side, we have the fans whining about taking him over LSU receiver Justin Jefferson, who was taken one pick later by the Minnesota Vikings. On the other hand, fans are whining because Howie didn’t trade up a few spots to grab Oklahoma phenom CeeDee Lamb before Dallas could get their hands on him.
To those fans who are still complaining about the pick on social media, respectively, shut the hell up.
First I’ll address the whiners who wanted Jefferson over Reagor. Both of their skill sets are pretty similar; they’re both versatile and can move all over the formation. The only major difference is their speed, where Reagor has the clear advantage. Isn’t that what we wanted at receiver? Someone who can take the top off at any given moment?
If DeSean is fully healthy, do you understand how hard it’ll be for defenses to account for two legitimate deep threats on the outside? While also trying to account for the two tight ends who can hurt defenses through the seam, or the running backs who can not only cut through a defense in the running game, but are threats in the screen game as well.
Not many corners have 4.3 speed, and the Eagles now have two wideouts with that kind of speed on the outside. Jefferson still would’ve fit this offense well; his experience in the slot is much more advanced than Reagor, so he would’ve been great in the RPO game with slants and crossers.
But, the team already has two tight ends who they like in those situations, plus Greg Ward played well in the slot last year down the stretch. We didn’t have anybody, other than Jackson, who could seriously stretch defenses.
Remember how great this offense looked in the one game Jackson played in last year? Doug Pederson’s offense is at its best when he’s able to keep defenses off balance; having a legit deep threat (we’ll have two if both stay healthy this year) forces defenses to respect that speed, leaving running lanes open for Miles Sanders as well as under routes open for Ertz or Geodert.
One of the big arguments revolving around Jefferson v. Reagor is their production last year. Obviously, Jefferson has the far better numbers. But as we all learned last year with J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, production in college doesn’t really mean shit. JJAW had far better numbers than D.K. Metcalf entering last year’s draft, and we all saw how their rookie years unfolded.
Last season, 69% of the balls thrown Jefferson’s way were catchable, whereas 31% of the balls thrown at Reagor were catchable. Like Joe Giglio says in this tweet, flip flop these two and the conversation is completely different.
Now, let’s talk about those stinkin’ Cowboys. That pick had Jerry Jones written all over it, didn’t it?
I, like all of you, started to fall for the tease of CeeDee Lamb once he started to slide. I also honestly didn’t think Dallas would take him, they have so many other needs across the board. Taking a wideout when you have two really good ones already wouldn’t make sense.
But, the Cowboys pulled the trigger on him, reportedly out of spite towards the Eagles because they knew we clearly would have taken him. Sure, they have a great receiving corps now, but who’s going to start at center for them? Who’s going to start at corner or safety? This isn’t Madden, folks. Skill position players don’t always translate to wins in the NFL.
The best center was on the board there as well as arguably the best safety, but they passed on both just to spite us? Okay…? We still ended up with a great receiver, so I’m not really sure what Cowboys fans are writing home about.
“It was revenge for the Eagles taking Dallas Goedert a couple years back!” Yeah, and your team still doesn’t have a good tight end. Jerry took the best wideout available in a draft where 15 wide receivers have first round grades on them. Like that was supposed to completely foil our plans?
Congrats on the new shiny toy, Jerry. You’ll need him when your in shoot outs every week with that piss poor defense of yours!
Sorry for ranting, I just really hate the Cowboys. Can you blame me?
But at the end of the day, none of us truly know if this pick will work out. So enough with the “Howie blew it!” alright? On paper, we just added a baller at the wide receiver position. So let’s all sit back and relax, we got a good wide receiver, let’s be happy about that.
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