Philadelphia Eagles: Let the Nelson Agholor farewell tour begin

If you love slot wide receiver Nelson Agholor, you’d better catch him this season, as it could very well be his last with the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Philadelphia Eagles very well may have the best wide receiving trio in the league.

With Alshon Jeffery and DeSean Jackson on the outside and Nelson Agholor in the slot (not to mention Zach Ertz who will surely eclipse them all in catches), Carson Wentz should be a very, very happy man when the regular season opens up come September.

But there’s a slight problem that could put a Lil damper on what could be a historic receiving season: Nelson Agholor is playing on the fifth and final year of his rookie contract.

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Now sure, the Eagles could obviously bring Agholor back on a new contract – a possibility that Howie Roseman and company will surely ponder – but between the team’s incredibly tight salary cap situation and the front office’s decision to draft JJ Arcega-Whiteside 57th overall, that seems relatively unlikely.

Frankly, resigning Agholor to a four-year, $41 million deal – the going rate for top-end slot receivers like Sterling Shepard and Tyler Lockett – may actually be physically irresponsible.

And that’s okay.

Sure, it’s never fun to watch a homegrown player blossom into a star over half a decade only to sign a new contract elsewhere, but we don’t have to look at Agholor’s impending free agency period as a dark cloud over the Birds’ future; no, we should celebrate Agholor and his accomplishment while he’s still here.

Originally selected 20th overall in Chip Kelly‘s lone season as the Eagles GM, the ex-USC Trojan superstar’s talents didn’t immediately translate to the NFL.

While other NFL youngsters like Mike Evans, Odell Beckham, and, um, Kelvin Benjamin took the league by storm as rookies, Agholor had an aggressively quiet rookie season, hauling in 23 balls for 283 yards and a single touchdown.

Agholor’s initial struggles loomed so heavy over the Lagos, Nigeria native that he even took a game off to emotionally recharge after a particularly brutal game against the Seattle Seahawks on November 20th, 2016.

But once a certain Bismarck Bullet came to town, it all started to click.

No longer forced to play on the outside as Sam Bradford‘s number one target, Agholor – now wearing number 13 – transformed himself into a pretty impressive weapon coming out of the slot, and his numbers followed suit.

Eclipsing 60 catches for 700 yards in each of the past two seasons, Agholor could very well break the century mark for the first time in his soon to be five-year NFL career in what may be his last dance in midnight green – that is if he earns enough catches to force himself into that conversation.

Next. Joe Ostman carted off the field in front of 40,000 fans. dark

And hey, if you want to look on the bright side, plenty of farewell tours have proven to be a lot less than final, just ask Brett Favre, Michael Jordan, or pretty much any rock band ever – sometimes life finds a way, even for wide receivers. However, if the two parties do eventually decide to split amicably in March of 2020, at least we’ll get to enjoy one final union of Nelson Agholor and the Philadelphia Eagles. Nothing last forever.

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