Alshon Jeffery Can Help Eagles Win, but Will he Get the Chance?

The veteran WR is on track to make his season debut against the Giants, but since he's been gone the position has seen players step up

It wasn’t long after 21-year-old Jalen Reagor was drafted by the Eagles when his phone buzzed with a text from veteran receiver Alshon Jeffery.

Jeffery wanted the rookie to know that if he had any questions to fire away.

“Alshon’s been helping me since the day I got here,” said Reagor. “…I run a route, he’s like, ‘Nephew, you could’ve done this better' or 'That was a good route.’ We’re just getting a great player back.”

Jeffery was a great player, a Super Bowl hero for the Eagles in 2017.

Maybe he still is a great player.

It looks like we are about to find out if he is.

For the second straight day, Jeffery was a full participant in Thursday’s practice. Unless another injury strikes in the final hours leading up to kick-off against the New York Giants on Sunday (1 p.m.),

The last time Jeffery played in a game was, ironically, against the New York Giants last Dec. 9. It was in the game, after 20 snaps, that he suffered a Lisfranc injury.

Since then, he has undergone surgery for that, rehabbed, turned 30 on Valentine’s Day, had his a contract that counts for more than $15 million against the salary cap guaranteed by GM Howie Roseman, and, recently, had a calf injury pop up that he now, evidently, has overcome.

Jeffery has also drawn plenty of criticism for various reasons from a fan base that blames him for being the anonymous source that spoke poorly of the front office and quarterback Carson Wentz.  

The last time Jeffery caught a pass was the week before the Giants game, on Dec. 1, and it wasn’t just one catch. Jeffery had nine for 137 yards and a touchdown against the Miami Dolphins.

In 10 games last year, he had 43 catches for 49 yards, both totals the fewest in a season since his rookie year in 2012 with the Bears.

But, what if Jeffery can be great again, at least for eight games and perhaps into the playoffs if the Eagles qualify?

For that to happen, he will need reps, and those don’t seem available now with the blooming of Travis Fulgham and the return of Reagor and the reliability of Greg Ward.

“That’s something we’re going to keep exploring as we go,” said Wentz. “I don’t make the decisions on those things, but I think as he continues to work back in and everything, we see where he’s at, where he’s at within our offense and how we can use him and mix him in with these other guys.

“It is a fine line. There’s really no right or wrong answer there. At the end of the day, the guys that are going to help us win are the guys that are going to be on the field.”

Jeffery can help this team win.

It’s just a matter of figuring out how, and that’s the job of head coach Doug Pederson and his staff, which, frankly, has struggled to find ways to use Jalen Hurts and, when he was healthy, Zach Ertz.

So, any enthusiasm should be tempered.

“The only thing I would say about Alshon that is encouraging is that we’ve had a lot of banked reps over the years, so we’ve worked together, we played together for a while,” said Wentz. “Obviously, that’s been missing now for a good while, but I think we have a lot of confidence in each other. So, however much he’s out there and utilized, I’m confident in him.”

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