Quez Watkins is Answering Nick Sirianni's Call for Competition
PHILADELPHIA —The Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver room is overflowing with projections and optimism.
When Nick Sirianni arrived at the Nova Care Complex, the immediate thoughts that followed were how much his presence would impact the wideout group.
After notable success as the position coach and a track record of developing, or getting the most out of receivers at each destination Sirianni has been, confidence for an improved group in Philadelphia ensued.
One thing that echoes from Sirianni’s introductory press conference was his call for competition. Many unproven commodities make up the Eagles roster heading into 2021, with many needing to prove their worth to these new coaches, and several have.
One player, in particular, however, has been emerging among the wide receiver group since the beginning of summer and appears to be answering his new coach’s call.
That player is Quez Watkins.
Once the Eagles selected DeVonta Smith with the 10th pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, the starting receivers were cemented in the minds of many.
Smith would accompany Jalen Reagor and Travis Fulgham as starters at the position, while Sirianni would be tasked with developing and getting the most out of the group.
But Watkins is determined to force the team to change course, and that’s what a first-year coaching staff looks for with the personnel they inherit. Players that separate themselves from the pack.
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Since the fourth day of Eagles' training camp, Smith has been absent due to injury but still projects to be Philadelphia’s No.1 receiver. After that, everything should be fair game among the depth chart given the emergence of Watkins and the unconvincing performances of the rest of the group.
Colleagues Ed Kracz and John McMullen have agreed on multiple occasions Watkins has been the best receiver of the bunch in training camp to date. Kracz has stated Reagor has continued to struggle with consistency, Fulgham is underwhelming to this point, J.J. Arcega-Whiteside has become an afterthought, and Greg Ward is proving to be nothing more than a sturdy WR4.
With those details in mind, why not allow Watkins to earn a starting role?
He appears to be tracking in that direction after getting first-team reps on Saturday for the first time in training camp and again against the New England Patriots on Monday, the first of their two joint practices leading up to their preseason game Thursday night (7:30/NBC10) at Lincoln Financial Field.
There’s more to Watkins than meets the eye, and speed doesn’t appear to be even the gist of it.
When your new head coach has a press conference where he’s directly asked about your progression to this point, and that said coach goes on to compare the player to former players he’s coached, who also had quite the amount of success under his guidance, that usually bodes well for the player.
That’s precisely what happened for Watkins recently.
“I don't want to give him an unfair comparison because he's still got work, but there was a couple of times that he's ran a play and I'm like, ‘Gosh, that looked like Travis Benjamin,’ who we had and who led the NFL in yards per catch back in 2016,'" said Sirianni. "Or, ‘Man, did you see how he ran that post? That looked like T.Y Hilton.’ You always do that with players."
Watkins is out to prove he’s more than just the 4.35 40-yard dash speed guy he’s viewed as. Even with the similarities to effectively perform wide receiver screens to that of Robert Woods, Watkins has shown strides in his overall route-running ability in the NFL.
Ever since Hurts was inserted as the Eagles’ starter, the two possessed a connection right away and worked on only improving it during the off-season.
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Remember, Watkins had as many targets (12) as Fulgham, Arcega-Whiteside, and Hightower combined since Hurts’ first NFL start versus the New Orleans Saints.
"This whole offseason, I just made everything personal," Watkins told reporters. "Everything people said I couldn't do. 'I was only fast.' I just made everything personal and put the work in. I'm just here to do my job, to play ball.”
Jordan Mailata, a seventh-round pick, has outperformed the first-round pick in Andre Dillard in the left tackle competition before Dillard’s injury.
The point is, draft status, or small glimpses of good play, shouldn’t anoint who ends up at the top of the receiver depth chart.
When Sirianni demanded competition from his new personnel, he gave a window of opportunity for players, who were envisioned one way by the previous coaching staff, to prove themselves to be more than initially thought of to the new staff.
Watkins has done everything necessary to prove himself up to this point. With the lackluster performances from the rest of the receiver room, the second-year pass-catcher out of Southern Mississippi is providing Sirianni a component to install into his aerial attack.
After quickly comparing Watkins to the likes of Hilton and Benjamin, it appears Sirianni is already conjuring up a game plan for the wide receiver, which ‘isn’t a secret anymore,’ according to his quarterback.
Fulgham was an unlikely contributor for the Eagles last season, but Watkins is poised to become that, and much more, for Philadelphia in 2021.
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Conor Myles covers the Philadelphia Eagles for SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-hosts the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast on Bleav Podcast Network. Reach Conor at ConorMylesSI@gmail.com or Twitter: @ConorMylesSI
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
