The Philadelphia Eagles are the only team in the NFC East without a true WR1

For whatever reason, the Philadelphia Eagles really haven’t been able to figure out the wide receiver position over the last couple of years. Even during their victorious 2017 campaign, the team failed to have a single WR record over 800 yards during the regular season.

The lack of an elite WR in 2018 and 2019 really hurt the team’s overall postseason chances, and things got even worse in 2020 when none of the team’s rookie wideouts managed to make an impact during their debut seasons. He’ll likely never come out and say it, but the franchise’s inability to acquire elite receiving talent likely played a role in Carson Wentz requesting a trade.

For what it’s worth, it’s not like Howie Roseman hasn’t tried to acquire stud WR talent over the last few years – he’s just done a really bad job of it. He paid Alshon Jeffery a ton of money back during the 2017 season, and then fully guaranteed it a year later for reasons unknown. Roseman traded away a third-round pick for Golden Tate, he kept Nelson Agholor around in 2019 on a fifth-year option, he traded for (and extended) DeSean Jackson, and then spent a first-rounder on Jalen Reagor.

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Obviously, none of those moves ended up working out, and the culmination of all those failures is a big reason the team finished 4-11-1 in 2020.

In the past, an overall abysmal NFC East somewhat masked the deficiencies that the Philadelphia Eagles were experiencing at wide receiver. However, following the signing of Curtis Samuel to Washington and more specifically the signing of Kenny Golladay to New York, the Eagles have very quickly become the butt of jokes in the NFC East when it comes to WR talent.

The Philadelphia Eagles can’t seem to find a WR1.

Notice a team missing on that list? Yikes…

As much as some fans still believe in Jalen Reagor’s longterm potential, the brutal reality is that the current Eagles regime has proven time and time again that they don’t know what to look for when it comes to top-tier WR talent. They failed to ever give Wentz a legitimate ‘WR1″ during his time in Philadelphia, and they could very well do the same with Jalen Hurts in 2021 (should he be the team’s starting quarterback.)

Drafting someone like Ja’Marr Chase in the first round could solve this issue, but there’s also a fairly high chance that the LSU product won’t be available when the Eagles’ name is on the clock. Both the Dolphins and Bengals have expressed interest in surrounding their own respective young quarterbacks with added receiver talent this offseason.

In a perfect world, the Eagles would have been in the mix for someone like Golladay this offseason, but a mismanaged financial situation has left them scrounging for cap space. (You can only restructure so many contracts!)

Even if the Philadelphia Eagles end up with someone like Chase during the draft, it’s likely they’ll still have the worst WR room in the NFC East this season. The Cowboys arguably have three WR1 type players, Samuel should compliment his former college teammate Terry McLaurin quite nicely in Washington, and the Giants obviously brought in a former Pro Bowler in Golladay.

Maybe guys like Reagor and Travis Fulgham end up making massive leaps forward this offseason, or Roseman absolutely nails the draft, but if history has told us anything when it comes to the Eagles and their wide receivers – it’s unlikely said things will occur.