Philadelphia Eagles: The Case Against Cutting Nelson Agholor

The Philadelphia Eagles have tough decisions to make this offseason in regards to who to keep and who to cut.

Leodis McKelvin was the first cap casualty for the Philadelphia Eagles and with his performances this season, he was also one of the most obvious cuts to make. There are big decisions to make with the offensive line as well as the defense but one person whose name keeps popping up when fans discuss who should be cut is Nelson Agholor.

To say that Agholor’s second season in the league was rough would be a gross understatement as he was ridiculed by fans and even got benched by Doug Pederson. While his performance merited the response, it’s pretty clear that he was shellshocked during the season. While it wouldn’t be surprising for the Philadelphia Eagles to move in another direction at wide receiver, that doesn’t mean that Agholor needs to be cut.

With a new receiving coach joining the team in Mike Groh it makes sense for the Philadelphia Eagles to give Agholor another year. Groh has a track record of being able to turn around underwhelming receivers which he was able to do in Los Angeles with Brian Quick and Kenny Britt. It would be good to give him a year with Agholor to see what he can do because Agholor didn’t just forget how to play football in the past year.

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Financially it also wouldn’t make sense for the Philadelphia Eagles to cut Agholor next season either. If they were using his cap hit as a reason to cut him it would be a lie. Agholor has a cap hit of 2.5 million dollars but if he’s cut it would cost the Eagles 4.6 million dollars in dead money. While roster spots are a valuable commodity, it doesn’t make sense to cut a receiver who has potential to contribute to the team in 2017.

365 yards receiving isn’t an acceptable number for someone who saw the field as much as Agholor and I am in no way advocating that he should be given a free pass for his performances last year. But I also don’t think that he should be given up on so quickly. If you look at the numbers, his rookie year for the Philadelphia Eagles aren’t too far off from his numbers this year and his routes aren’t bad.

It seems like he has a confidence issue and usually, receivers can figure things out in their third year in the league. For Agholor it’s surely a sink or swim year in his career and his best chance to break out will be with the Eagles. He doesn’t have trade value so the team would likely need to give him away to gain the roster spot via trade.

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Agholor will benefit from seeing the field less in 2017 due to the draft and additions in free agency. He shouldn’t have been thrust into a role where he was expected to be the number two receiver for the Eagles and in a niche role, he will offer value to the team next season. All good things take time, give Nelson Agholor a little.