Philadelphia Eagles: Remembering Alshon Jeffery’s 2017 season

In case you haven’t heard, the Philadelphia Eagles have officially decided to part ways with Alshon Jeffery when the league year opens up.

Now, to be fair, this isn’t particularly shocking news. Jeffery’s been on the hot seat for some time now and likely would have been gone midway through the 2020 NFL season if someone was interested in trading for his then-injured services.

With Carson Wentz and DeSean Jackson already gone and other household names like Zach Ertz and Malik Jackson set to follow them out the door in the not too distant future, the Eagles are rapidly approaching an inflection point where the players many have associated with the franchise for years will no longer dawn the midnight green.

And if we’re being honest, very few fans are going out to mourn the loss of Jeffery, not in 2021 at least.

Despite some initial highs, Jeffery has largely underwhelmed versus his price tag over the past few seasons, having amassed fewer yards, touchdowns, and first downs in 2019 and 2020 combined than in 2018. Though he’d still shown flashes of the player many lauded the addition of back in 2017, Jeffery’s prime was clearly behind him, which made Howie Roseman‘s decision to guarantee his contract for the 2020 season in September of 2019 so confusing.

But now, or should I say, come March, the Alshon Jeffery-era of Eagles football is officially over, largely for the better. The Eagles can focus on giving younger guys like Travis Fulgham and… Ja’marr Chase(!?) a chance to play snaps at the X receiver spot without a 31-year-old vet breathing down their neck, and Jeffery can look for his next opportunity to cash in before his career comes to an end.

With that in mind, let’s take a walk down memory lane one last time to remember Jeffery’s exemplary 2017 season and how it helped the Philadelphia Eagles win the Super Bowl.

2017 Alshon Jeffery was a really good player for the Philadelphia Eagles.

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When the 2017 Philadelphia Eagles signed Alshon Jeffery in free agency, it felt like a major get.

The team was coming off of an encouraging first season under Doug Pederson, and many eagerly anticipated how Howie Roseman and company would build a high-powered offense around rocket-armed rookie QB Carson Wentz.

To his credit, Roseman did not disappoint.

I’ll remember it like it was yesterday. I was visiting my college in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, when a phone ping notification from Adam Schefter informed myself, and scores of other Eagles fans, that Alshon Jeffery, the top wide receiver on the open market, had agreed to a one-year, $9.5 million deal with my favorite team.

It. Was. Sick.

Sure, Jeffery was two-years removed from his last 1,000-yard season, but the 6-foot-3 South Carolina product had a reputation for being one of the better 50-50 ball catchers in the NFL and would surely serve as a better ball catcher than the underwhelming cast of characters Wentz had to throw to in his first season with the team.

And to his credit, Jeffery quickly made fans forget about players like Dorial Green-Beckham right out of the gate.

Though Jeffery never surpassed 100 yards in a single game for the Eagles in 2017 during either the regular season or the playoffs, he came darn close on multiple occasions, including a 92-yard performance against the Cheifs in Week 2 and a trio of 50-plus yard performances during the Birds’ playoff run.

Even after suffering a torn rotator cuff during the training camp, an injury fans wouldn’t find out about until after the Super Bowl, Jeffery played well enough to earn a four-year extension worth $52 million with $27 million guaranteed on December 2nd of that very year.

In hindsight, the Eagles probably should have allowed Jeffery to play out that deal without shaking things up to guarantee more money in a salary cap-skirting measure, but in 2019, fans were over the moon to keep number 17 on the roster for the foreseeable future. How could they have predicted that Jeffery would drop a much-needed pass versus the Saints the following postseason to effectively eliminate the team from contention? Or that he’d suffer a foot injury at the end of the 2019 season that effectively cost him his entire 2020 campaign?

No, at the time, Jeffery was the Eagles’ leading wide receiver, an outside foil for Zach Ertz, and a perfect partner for Carson Wentz. Why wouldn’t the Eagles want to extend him?

Next. Tyrod Taylor is the young QB kingmaker. dark

So, as Alshon Jeffery prepares for greener – but not midnight greener – pastures, it’s worth remembering just how exciting it was to see the Philadelphia Eagles steal away the wide receiver from the Chicago Bears and how instrumental he was to the team’s eventual Super Bowl win. Whether you like Jeffery, loathe Jeffery, or fall somewhere in between, that season and his touchdown catch versus the Patriots will surely serve as the focal point of his football career. See you at the 20th reunion, Alshon!

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