Philadelphia Eagles: Has the Travis Fulgham hype train already derailed?

The Philadelphia Eagles newest WR sensation fell back down to earth against the Giants.

*DISCLAIMER*: I like Travis Fulgham, I think he’s a good football player, I think he has a bright future ahead of him, and I think the Philadelphia Eagles should be counting their lucky stars that they stumbled into him this season.

With all that out of the way, let’s now have a brutal conversation on the reality of what exactly Fulgham is compared to the rest of the league.

Through the first five games of his Eagles career, Fulgham could do no wrong. He hauled in the game winning TD against San Francisco in his season debut, had a ridiculous 10 catch performance against Joe Haden and the Steelers, and logged 70+ yards against the Ravens, Cowboys, and Giants. Statistically speaking, he was one of the best wide receivers in all of football during that stretch, and fans of the team were quick to latch onto his newfound hype.

People were calling him the team’s new “WR1”, comparing him to the likes of DeAndre Hopkins and Stefon Diggs. They even used him as rebuttal to the oft-mentioned DK MetCalf/JJ Arcega-Whiteside disaster.

While Fulgham was undoubtedly successful during that five game stretch, there was some context to it all. Opposing teams had yet to really hone in on him as the Eagles go-to receiving target, Philly’s offense was still performing at a near league-worst rate, and a lot of Fulgham’s receptions were coming via contested catches. While there’s obviously use in having a strong, physical WR who can catch in traffic, a majority of today’s top receivers generate their offense through elite separation and crisp route running.

In general, throwing to wide open receivers is easier than throwing to covered receivers, regardless of the player’s ability to make contested catches.

On Sunday against the Giants, Fulgham completely disappeared. He logged just one reception on five targets, and he had two less-than-ideal drops late in the fourth quarter. Everyone has bad games, so I’m not going to use this as an indictment on Fulgham as a player, but it did paint a picture of Fulgham not necessarily being the second coming of Randy Moss (as some fans were quick to crown him as).

A former sixth-round pick who was cut by two different teams, the Philadelphia Eagles getting some production out of Fulgham is an awesome story. He’s a legit NFL caliber receiver who could probably consistently average 700-800 yards a season on a below average team. Could he be a second or third option on a Super Bowl caliber team? Maybe. Although it’s hard to imagine a team like the Chiefs or the Steelers swapping any of their current WRs for Fulgham.

Fulgham is under contract through 2021, and is a restricted free agent in 2022. Based off that alone, he’s arguably the Eagles most valuable asset at the moment. The team should undoubtedly force feed him the football over the next seven weeks to really see just how much he can develop. With that said, does that mean he’s the franchise’s version of Julio Jones for the next 10 seasons? No, unfortunately not. Carson Wentz and the Eagles are still in desperate need of that truly elite WR moving forward.