Another trusted weapon for Jalen Hurts? What Eagles think they'll get the most from Dontayvion Wicks

Dontayvion Wicks isn't viewed as just a new acquisition in the Jefferson Health Training Complex. The Philadelphia Eagles have been following him for a long time, noticing a trend from Wicks' time with the Green Bay Packers.

"You can see that in key situations that the quarterback had a lot of trust in him," Eagles general manager Howie Roseman said earlier this week. "You see his skillset, I mean he's a physical explosive player at the top of routes he can play inside or out.

"So he's the guy that we had our eye on here and then bringing in some of these Green Bay guys."

The trust Jordan Love had with Wicks was evident looking at the numbers, specifically on fourth down. Wicks caught both fourth down passes thrown to him from Love last season -- one being a touchdown. Love had a perfect passer rating (158.3) when targeting Wicks on fourth down.

Love targeted Wicks five times over the last three seasons on fourth down -- going 3-of-5 for 39 yards with a touchdown (124.3 rating).

The Eagles didn't view Wicks as just another wide receiver, showcasing a two-year commitment to him by giving Wicks a $12.5 million contract for 2027. Philadelphia has repeatedly said AJ Brown is still with the Eagles, but also realize they needed depth at wide receiver regardless.

Wicks is the third wide receiver acquisition this offseason, as the Eagles signed Hollywood Brown and Elijah Moore to one-year contracts in free agency. The Eagles have been fortunate Brown and DeVonta Smith haven't suffered significant enough injuries where they had to miss a great amount of time -- or the season.

They don't want to face that reality either -- especially if they move on from Brown.

"I think when you look at our receiver room over the last couple of years, we've probably been fortunate about the depth that we haven't really had to dive into and just studying the league and seeing how many teams can go pretty deep in the receiver room," Roseman said. "That was one of the priorities going into this offseason is increasing the depth of quality of talent in the receiver room throughout the room. So that really fit for us.

"Really excited to get Tay here and think he's an arrow up guy."

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