Eagles Need Nelson Agholor to Step Up as Deep Threat with Jackson Out
The deep threat in the Eagles’ passing game is still sidelined on with an abdomen injury, and there doesn’t seem to be any good news forthcoming on when DeSean Jackson will return to the lineup.
Head coach Doug Pederson said that Jackson is being pushed more, but that is on a side field somewhere at the team’s training facility, away from anyone who wants to see how Jackson is doing. The veteran receiver did not participate in Wednesday’s practice and that means any hope for him returning to the field in Minnesota on Sunday is slim.
The Eagles’ offense has been limited without Jackson’s ability to stretch the field.
They took two shots to Nelson Agholor against the New York Jets, but completed neither throw, so the Eagles are forced to utilize longer drives to navigate the length of the field, and that could present challenges against a defense such as the one Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer has put together.
“We still feel we have the guys that are capable,” said quarterback Carson Wentz. “Obviously, DeSean is kind of his own type of player in that regard, but we still feel we’re capable of doing that (going deep) and we’ll still attack down the field when it’s there, but again we’re not going to force it just to make sure we do that, but when it’s there we’re going to try to exploit it in different ways.”
Agholor should be one of those deep threats and, maybe to a lesser extent, Mack Hollins.
Agholor, though, is the veteran and yet he has been mostly invisible during the Eagles’ current two-game winning streak, with only one catch for 20 yards, despite playing more than 90 percent of the offensive snaps in those two wins.
“He's doing everything we ask him to do,” said offensive coordinator Mike Groh. “I got the question about the down-the-field throws and he's gotten behind the defense and was knocked off his route twice (against the Jets), otherwise maybe he's got two touchdowns and we're sitting here going, “Holy cow, what a game.
“It's just little things like that that impact the stat line a little bit, but he’s doing a lot of things behind the scenes, as he always does. He’s a tremendous teammate, unselfish player, and one of the glues to the offense.”
There is no panic by the Eagles or Agholor, yet, though the receiver’s yards per catch average is just 9.9, the lowest it has been since he entered the league in 2015.
Agholor has caught 19 passes for 188 yards, but he struggled with drops in the two back-to-back losses against the Falcons and Lions.
“We’re getting some good work in,” said Agholor, referring to him and Wentz.
“The practices leading up to the last game were really good. We were getting after it, working extra. Sometimes what you put that in it doesn’t always show itself right away, but it’s going to show itself at the right time. I have a lot of faith and we’re going to keep working and we’re going to cash in soon.”
The sooner the better for the Eagles, since this three-game stretch of road games could very well end up defining their season.
“I feel extremely confident in Nellie,” said Wentz. “I felt extremely confident in him since I got here, just knowing the type of person he is. I know how he understands the game, I know how hard he works, how badly he wants to be great.
“I have a ton of confidence in him. It’s something you don’t overdo it, you don’t overdo it at all, you just keep building him up. I feel extremely confident going forward he’s going to make a lot of big plays for us this year.”
This isn’t the same Agholor as 2016, when he struggled so badly, head coach Doug Pederson sat him on the bench for a game to help him clear a head cluttered with the mental angst of dropped passes.
This is a more mature Agholor, a more confident Agholor who was one of the Eagles’ standouts in Super Bowl LII, and has had his share of success these past five years.
“The day you start worrying about (your role in the offense) is the day you miss your opportunity, honestly,” said Agholor. “I know that it’s going to come and it’s going to come real big and I’m going to fall back in the end zone and I’ll be all excited and happy and slapping hands and all that.
“It’s about me putting in the work and trusting that my time will come to have what you would call another breakout game to get those juices flowing. And after you have them, they come in bunches, you take the lid off them.”
