Philadelphia Eagles: Please move Hakeem Butler back to wide receiver

Hakeem Butler might be the Philadelphia Eagles’ best wide receiver in Week 4.

Coming out of college, some talent evaluators really liked Hakeem Butler.

A pretty much consensus top-100 pick across the board, with some unfortunate souls like Rotoworld’s Josh Norris actually declaring him the top receiver in the 2019 class above everyone from Hollywood Brown to D.K. Metcalf, Butler looked like the next great supersized wide receiver the NFL hasn’t seen since Mike Evans.

I mean, that didn’t happen obviously, as Butler was waived by the Cardinals before playing a regular-season snap for the club, but what’s really changed since scouts like Norris declared the ex-Iowa State Cyclone a future star? Does his status as a practice squad player suddenly remove his pre-draft pedigree?

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But I don’t want to talk about that.

I don’t want to talk about why the Cardinals waived Butler over less-heralded receivers like Trent Sherfield, KeeSean Johnson, and Dan Arnold, or even why they opted against signing him to their practice squad once he cleared waivers. No, I want to talk about his position on the Philadelphia Eagles.

Like literally, his listed position.

When the Eagles announced the decision to sign Butler off the Carolina Panthers’ practice squad, it came with a new position title: Tight End. That’s right, while Butler has played wide receiver for his entire football career, and was drafted with the 103rd overall pick because of his deep ball dominance in college as a 50-50 ball specialist, the Eagles opted to instead assign the 24-year-old cousin of Kentucky basketball stars Aaron and Andre Harrison to the tight ends room to learn under Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert.

In theory, this idea isn’t the worst.

Per Butler’s own admission, many teams asked the massive wide receiver if he’d be willing to play tight end at the NFL-level as a sort of Darren Waller-type receiving tight end, and at the moment, there isn’t a more exciting style of player. I mean seriously, have you seen what opposing teams have done to the Eagles’ linebacking corps with even average tight ends? Imagine having a 6-foot-5 ball catcher who runs a 4.48 flying down the middle of the field on a 6-foot-1 middle linebacker like T.J. Edwards. With Goedert on IR for the next three-plus weeks, why not take a shot at Butler making a position change on the fly as a low-medium investment?

Because the Eagles literally have one healthy wide receiver left from their Week 1 corps, that’s why.

I know, right, crazy. Why on earth would the Eagles give Butler a nod at receiver when they have such… intriguing(?) options like Deontay Burnett, Marcus Green, and Travis Fulgham just waiting for that sweet, sweet practice squad elevation?

Yeah, beats me too.

While I get the concept of wanting to ease Butler’s transition into a new scheme, especially when he’s also learning a position. He was considered a raw prospect coming out of college and clearly wasn’t the most receptive receiver on the block in Arizona if Kliff Kingsbury was willing to cut bait after a little over a year. With that being said, he’s still a massive, 6-foot-5 wide receiver that looks like Jimmy Butler in pads, and is capable of making some pretty impressive trick catches.

Why not line that guy up on the 5-foot-10 former first-round cornerback Jason Verrett and just throw the ball up seven feet in the air a half dozen times Sunday evening? Butler has a 36-inch vertical, he can handle those 50-50 balls, especially when it’s more like a 70-30 ball on a shorter defender.

Again, I totally get wanting to take some time with a prospect’s development instead of throwing them into the deep end without a lifevest, but that philosophy, which was famously used with both JJ Arcega-Whiteside and Jalen Reagor, was noticeably absent when the Eagles were seemingly signing up any receiver with a pulse to haul in passes from Carson Wentz down the stretch in 2019.

Fast forward to Week 4 of the 2020 season, and the Eagles are in the very same position, only this time, they already have a massive receiver in Butler on their active roster who will perform a heck of a lot better on short notice than, say, Robert Davis.

Considering JJAW has exactly zero catches for zero yards and zero touchdowns on two targets through the first three weeks of the season, literally any positive production out of the supersized ‘joker‘ would be thoroughly appreciated, regardless of what position he’s technically tasked with playing. If Butler ends up being a player, that almost makes up for passing on both Metcalf and Terry McLaurin with the 57th overall pick, right?

dark. Next. Who in the heck is Nick Mullens?

No matter how you slice it, the Philadelphia Eagles are not in a particularly good position going into Week 4. Jason Peters, Dallas Goedert, and Jalen Reagor are all on IR, with every other Week 1 receiver not named Greg Ward is out as well. If they are going to find a way to defeat the Nick Mullens-led 49ers on their home turf, they’re going to have to get creative – or, ya know, put their best 11 players on the field. Whether you call him a wide receiver, tight end, or H-back, Hakeem Butler is all but certainly among those 11 unfortunate souls and should be placed in the best possible position to succeed in his first NFL game. That position is wide receiver, btw.

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