The Philadelphia Eagles stand at 5-5 going into a key match-up at home against the Seattle Seahawks, one of the elite teams in NFC. Everything about this team screams mediocrity and, if it wasn’t for being in the NFC East, perhaps the worst division in the NFL, and a schedule that sees the Eagles play teams with eleven combined wins in their last five weeks (and six of those are from the Cowboys), they would be dead in the water. But alas, they are still very much alive, and are only a game behind Dallas, a team against which they will still play in Lincoln Financial Field.

Philadelphia has been a middle of the road team so far this season, they have as many wins as they have losses, they have a couple of quality wins – at Green Bay and at Buffalo; but also have some disappointing losses – in Atlanta and at home against the Lions; they have both the 18th ranked scoring offense and defense. But there’s one particular area where the Eagles are truly awful, historically bad, and that are is no secret to anyone who has watched the Eagles this season or at least pays attention to the main headlines for the team: their wide receiver corps. But just how bad are they – and specifically the much maligned Nelson Agholor, who just two seasons ago was one of the main factors in their Super Bowl run? That’s what we will try and find out.

Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Jeremy Maclin (19) catches a third-quarter touchdown against the Green Bay Packers, breaking a streak of no touchdowns by a wide receiver since 2013, on Monday, Sept. 28, 2015, at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis. (David Eulitt/Kansas City Star/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

It seems hard to fathom nowadays, in the Patrick Mahomes era, but everybody who followed the NFL somewhat closely at the time remembers the long drought in which Kansas City went more than 650 days without a touchdown catch by a wide receiver. Jeremy Maclin, a former Eagles, caught a touchdown in the third quarter of a blowout loss to the Packers, on Monday Night Football, on September 28, 2015, to end a streak that started almost two years before, on December 8th, 2013. Those wide receiver groups for the Chiefs were though to watch, sure, but the group that stems from Philadelphia these days is giving them a run for their money.

The Eagles aren’t absolutely awful in the passing game, Carson Wentz is 18th in passing yards, has a 4:1 Touchdown to Interception ratio and his passing rate is better than those of Tom Brady or the rookie sensation Kyler Murray. But those stats are strongly supported by the receiving production of Zach Ertz (3rd in receiving yards among Tight Ends) and Dallas Goedert (tied for 5th in receiving touchdowns) who, combined, have the most receiving yards of any tight end duo in the league, along with the rookie Miles Sanders (9th in receiving yards among Running Backs).

PHILADELPHIA, PA – NOVEMBER 17: Dallas Goedert #88, Zach Ertz #86, Carson Wentz #11, and Lane Johnson #65 of the Philadelphia Eagles huddle against the New England Patriots at Lincoln Financial Field on November 17, 2019 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)

If we focus exclusively on Wide Receiver production, the Eagles have only the 67th (Alshon Jeffery) and 73rd (Nelson Agholor) best player in receiving yards, despite having a lofty cap hit among players in the position. That stat is even worse if we consider that Jeffery’s base salary for the year is only 930 thousand dollars but will jump to 9.9 millions next season (with a 15.7 million cap hit) and to 12.75 million dollars in 2021 (with a 18.5 million cap hit), thanks to the restructure made earlier this year.

The season actually started pretty hopefully with the return of DeSean Jackson to Philly, as a legitimate deep-threat that the Eagles didn’t have since the days of Torrey Smith in the 2017 Super Bowl team. The bet on Jackson payed off, with Carson Wentz connecting twice with the veteran speedster on the first game of the year for two touchdown of over fifty yards. But it wasn’t all good news for DeSean Jackson and the Eagles, with the wide-out suffering an abdominal strain early in their next game at Atlanta, after only eleven snaps and no touches, and being sidelined until week nine. DeSean Jackson returned, almost two months after the monstrous start of his season, but lasted only four snaps before being injured again, which ultimately resulted in him being put on IR as he recovers from core muscle surgery. The two catches were an early highlight to the year but, unfortunately, those would be the only two touchdowns catches of more than twenty yards of the season, so far, by the much maligned wide receiver group.

Besides DeSean Jackson, Alshon Jeffery is another player that seems to be suffering with the injury bug. The former Bears receiver, who will turn 30 in February, missed almost all of the game in Atlanta and the full game the week after that with a calf injury. Jeffery returned in Lambeau field but hasn’t been is usual effective self, only twice surpassing five catches in a game, never reaching a hundred yards and finally contracting another injury, this time to his left ankle, that sidelined him for the game against New England and leaves him questionable for the match against the Seahawks this Sunday.

Guys like Mack Hollins (averaging one catch per game), Jordan Matthews (just signed during the bye week, who saw only one target in the game against the Patriots) and second-round rookie JJ Arcega-Whiteside (with only three receptions on the year, in less than a target per game) who was picked ahead of guys like DK Metcalf or Hunter Renfrow, and only a sport after Mecole Hardman, have also failed to make any significant impact.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – OCTOBER 13: Alshon Jeffery #17 of the Philadelphia Eagles, Mack Hollins #16, and Nelson Agholor #13 line up in the third quarter of the game against the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium on October 13, 2019 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

The best example of how ineffective the the passing plays between Carson Wentz and his wide receivers have been is the deep ball. Benefiting from a running game which has been somewhat solid, and improving as the season is progressing (eleventh most rushing yards per game and over four yards a carry), and reliable targets in the middle of the field in Ertz and Goedert, the Eagles could and should explore the deep pass as a mean of surprising defenses and open up lanes to take advantage of their running capabilities. But, so far this season, the Eagles QB as connected with his wide receivers only seven times in passes of more than twenty yards. That’s seven times out of 31 attempts on all passing plays more than twenty yards down the field! Even more damning is how those passes have come to fruition. Let’s take a look:

Week 1 vs. Redskins: DeSean Jackson catches a 51-yard pass for a touchdown with the Eagles down 17-0 in the middle of the second quarter;

Week 1 vs. Redskins: DeSean Jackson grabs his second long touchdown of the game, a 53-yarder in the middle of the third, putting Philly up by one;

Week 2 @ Atlanta: Nelson Agholor catches a 43 yard pass, on 4th-and-14, with the Eagles trailing Atlanta by 4, with a minute and a half to play;

Week 6 @ Minnesota: Nelson Agholor hauls in a 23-yarder at the start of the second half. Philadelphia was already losing by 14;

Week 7 @ Dallas: Wentz connects with Jeffery for 30 yards. The Eagles were down 27-7 with six and a half minutes left in the third quarter;

Week 8 @ Buffalo: Jeffery catches a ball for a 38 yard gain with the Eagles up 4 in the middle of the third;

Week 11 vs. Patriots: JJ Arcega-Whiteside has his best play of the season, catching a 29 yard pass from Wentz. The Eagles were down a score to New England with less than five minutes left in the game.

That’s seven completed passes to Wide Receivers of more than 20 yards, and only once were the Eagles not losing big or in crunch time (or both). The deep pass isn’t a weapon to the Eagles (at least to their Wide Receivers), is a desperation attempt when all else fails, as perfectly demonstrated last week when Nelson Agholor dropped the game-tying throw on fourth-down, in a game where the Patriots only touchdown came on a gimmick play.

PHILADELPHIA, PA – NOVEMBER 17: Nelson Agholor #13 of the Philadelphia Eagles looks on after an incomplete pass against the New England Patriots in the fourth quarter at Lincoln Financial Field on November 17, 2019 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Patriots defeated the Eagles 17-10. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)

The Eagles, who are tied for fourth in dropped passes for the year, have barely cracked a thousand receiving yards (1008, to be exact) by their wide receivers, the least of any NFL team so far in the season, have 133 less yards than Michael Thomas has all by himself and only fifteen yards more than Mike Evans of Tampa Bay. There are actually six teams that more than double Philadelphia’s wide receiver production, with only Kansas City having played more games than the Eagles.

Total passing yards gained by wide receiver groups trough the first eleven weeks of the season. Pictured above the six best teams in the NFL alongside the five worst and how they compare against Michael Thomas and Mike Evans, the two wide receivers with the most receiving yards so far this season.

If we look away from volume data and look at it percentage wise, the Eagles also compare badly with the rest of the NFL, with less than a third (30%) of their offensive yards coming from their wide receivers, with only the Baltimore Ravens group being responsible for less of their yards, but that is explained by being in the offense that relies less on passing plays in the whole league. In fact, besides the already mentioned Eagles and Ravens only San Francisco (with the second lower passing plays percentage) and Indianapolis (fourth lowest) fail to crack the 40% mark, with the mean being 46.5% and eleven teams having more than half their offensive production coming from their wide receivers.

Alshon Jeffery leads the Eagles Wide Receivers in both touchdown catches (tied with Nelson Agholor) with 3 and receiving yards with 353 and, assuming he misses Sunday’s game against Seattle as it seems to be the case, he is on pace to finish the season with 514 receiving yards. That’s San Francisco in 2018 levels of badness, and that’s a team that won four games on route to the 2nd overall pick, led by thirteen starts of either Nick Mullens or C.J. Beathard.

Amidst a struggling core of receivers there is however one that manages to stand out as a sore thumb. If DeSean Jackson had a promising start to the season interrupted by injury, if Alshon Jeffery is a veteran who may have reached the declining stage of his career and if Mack Hollins or JJ Arcega-Whiteside are young players still looking to find themselves in the NFL, trying to use the sparse opportunities as best as they can, the same can’t be said about the fifth year player out of USC.

INDIANAPOLIS, IN – FEBRUARY 21: Wide receiver Nelson Agholor of USC runs the 40-yard dash during the 2015 NFL Scouting Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium on February 21, 2015 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)

Nelson Agholor, where to start? Agholor was been durable, with 70 regular season games played out of a possible 74. He had a very decent 2017 season, surpassing 8 yards per target for a total of 768 receiving yards and 8 touchdowns and even adding a rushing score. Even so he was no more than the third best receiving option on the team that saw Carson Wentz play at a MVP level before being stopped by injury. In the other four seasons of his career Agholor has been one of the worst wide receivers in all of football, despite the ample opportunities he gets.

In both PFF’s and Football Outsiders metrics Agholor has been one of the worst in the league among qualified players with this season being dead last in both (h/t to SBNation’s Blog Bleeding Green Nation)

PFF:

2015: 101st out of 101;

2016: 103rd out of 104;

2017: 35th out of 107;

2018: 74th out of 108;

2019: 124th out of 124.

Football Outsiders:

2015: 83rd out of 88;

2016: 88th out of 94;

2017: 32nd out of 86;

2018: 78th out of 84;

2019: 66th out of 66.

It’s hard to argue against those rankings seeing as Agholor ranks in the bottom of multiple categories out of 40 players with at least 60 targets – last in total yards (322), yards per game (32.2), yards per reception (8.94), yards per target (5.11), and is ninth in catching percentage (55.6%). Not good at all! What makes the situation even more extreme is that the Eagles could have easily let Agholor go in the offseason but instead opted to activate the fifth-year option valued at almost 9.4 million dollars, for the former first round pick. That’s top 20 receiver money for a player that is pretty much a net negative for the team. With a 9.4 million dollars salary Agholor makes (all data from Pro Football Reference):

close to 300 thousand dollars less than Julio Jones, a sixh-time Pro-Bowler who is 118 yards away from his seventh thousand-yard season;

more than Steffon Diggs and significantly more than Marvin Jones;

more than 3,5 millions more than Adam Thielen, coming of two thousand yards season;

more than doubles the salary of Tyler Lockett and more than triples the salary of Davante Adams;

almost nine times as much as Michael Thomas (who, may I remind you, has more receiving yards than all the Eagles Wide Receivers combined this season) and more than nine times more than the three-time Super Bowl champion Julian Edelman;

More than ten times as much as guys like Juju Smith-Schuster, Cooper Kupp, Courtland Sutton, DJ Chark or Michael Gallup.

Not only is the salary of Nelson Agholor something that he should be thankful for, even the fact that he has a career at all at the NFL level is something he should think about, with Thanksgiving around the corner. Since 2000, Agholor is one of only eleven wide receivers who lasted at least five seasons in the league while recording more than 300 targets but less than 7 yards per target. Some of the other names you may recognize (and may I remind you again that Agholor has a 9.4 millions dollars salary) are:

Ted Ginn Jr. who has made 16.5 million in his 13 year career, but never more than 3 millions in a year;

Tavon Austin, whose highest salary as three and a half millions, but only in three seasons surpassed the six digits mark;

Danny Amendola, an undrafted free agent who averaged only slightly more than a million a year in his first eleven seasons;

the already retired Darrius Heyward Bey (14.5 million in ten years) and Eddie Royal (14 million is nine seasons.

PHILADELPHIA, PA – JUNE 03: Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Greg Ward (6) catches a pass during the Philadelphia Eagles OTA on June 3, 2019 at the Novacare Training Complex in Philadelphia, PA (Photo by John Jones/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

The Eagles season isn’t doomed, even if they lose again next Sunday, thanks to their weak division and a easy schedule in the final month of the regular season, but this team isn’t going to make any waves, even if they make the playoffs, without help from a wide receiver group that may play on Sunday with a combined 7 starts and 700 yards and 3 receiving touchdowns in the last two seasons.