Aaron Moorehead Sees Brighter Days Ahead for Eagles' Rookie WRs
PHILADELPHIA - The Eagles' two rookie receivers could have had better debuts against the Washington Football Team.
The sizzle was there with Jalen Reagor's 55-yard reception but the steak was missing, lost in a sea of less-than-crisp routes, a crucial drop by John Hightower, poor run blocking, and an unwillingness to fight for the football.
The conventional wisdom of rookies struggling early after COVID-19 decimated the offseason rang true for Philadelphia.
"It’s always a learn-on-the-job when you’re a rookie," said receivers coach Aaron Moorehead on Friday. "There’s a difference between OTAs, and a training camp practice, and the preseason and obviously a regular-season game. You’re always learning on the fly as a rookie. Unfortunately, they didn’t have OTAs or preseason."
Moorehead, once a player himself under Tony Dungy in Indianapolis, was quick to point out the Eagles aren't being graded on a curve and the rest of the league is dealing with the same kinds of things when it comes to their rookies.
"My big thing, I’ve said this for a long time since I was a player with Tony Dungy, no excuses, no explanations," said the coach. "We’ve got to get the job done. They have to continue to learn, continue to play fast, continue to play physical and we’ve got to make plays. That’s what the deal is about for those two guys."
Each rookie hauled in only one reception in the season-opener with Reagor, the first-round pick, snaring the big play and Hightower, a fifth-round selection, losing two yards on his only catch.
Each was targeted four times so Carson Wentz was at a 25.0 percent efficiency when looking at the two rookies, which is obviously not optimal.
The grades from independent observers were also nothing to write home about. Of the 86 receivers who played enough to be ranked by ProFootballFocus.com, Reagor came in at No. 75 and got particularly poor grades as a run-blocker on the 10 occasions he was asked to get after someone. Had Hightower played a little more, he would have been graded ahead of only Miami's Isaiah Ford so there is plenty of room for improvement.
"There’s a few plays that I know (Hightower) wishes he had back and things like that," said Moorehead. "But you have to take the good with that and you gotta move on. And that’s every week. I’ve been telling the guys that since I got here. The weeks tend to blend together. You gotta take the good and learn from it. You gotta take the bad and learn from it. You gotta progress each week. You’ve ought to be getting better each week of the season."
Moorehead knows of what he speaks. he made the transition from undrafted rookie out of Illinois to a guy who stuck around for five seasons, catching passes from Peyton Manning.
"I would say two things," the coach said when asked by SI's EagleMaven on what the toughest aspect of transitioning from college to the professional ranks is. "One, I would just say the speed and intensity of the game. I mean compared to practice. That was a really big transition for me. Those guys got a little taste of that on Sunday. Just understanding how fast this thing is moving.
"And then for me, I was playing special teams as well. And just (learning) how violent special teams was in the NFL compared to in college. Those two things for me, it took me a game to figure that out. I went into Game 2, I felt a lot better than Game 1. But for me, it was just understanding how different the speed was. How different the violence and intensity were."
The good news for Reagor and Hightower is everything slows down a little bit moving forward.
"For their first game, there’s little things, details, that they’ve got to get cleaned up," said Moorehead. "And we concentrated on some things this week.
"They’re pretty diligent about their work and I was really pleased with their progress from Week 1 to Week 2 as far as practice and game and practice again. So hopefully that transitions to the game on Sunday."
John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John every Monday and Friday on SIRIUSXM and every Monday and Thursday with Eytan Shander on SportsMap Radio. He’s also the host of Extending the Play on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
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