Philadelphia Eagles: Geronimo Allison won’t fix the wide receiver depth

The Philadelphia Eagles have two really good pass catchers in DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert.

The former is a 23-year-old rookie wide receiver who is on pace to become the team’s first 1,000-yard receiver since the now-retired Jeremy Maclin accomplished the feat back in 2015.

And the latter? Well, he’s one of the better do-it-all tight ends in the business who is putting together one heck of a breakout season in this, a contract year. While he may not end up with George Kettle money, Goedert will surely enter 2022 as one of the highest-paid tight ends in the NFL, hopefully still as a member of the Eagles.

But behind those two – and Quez Watkins, who is a very effective roleplayer – there are a whole lot of questions and not so many answers.

While the Philadelphia Eagles should do everything in their power to get a little more production out of the bottom of their roster, it’s hard to imagine any mid-season alterations suddenly providing Nick Sirianni’s offense with another viable wide receiver.

Even Geronimo Allison can’t save the Philadelphia Eagles’ receiving depth.

On paper, Geronimo Allison would be the Philadelphia Eagles’ most prolific wide receiver.

He’d be their only option perimeter or slot with 1,000 yards on his receiving resume, and would be the only pass catcher on the team not named Greg Ward with any experience playing wide receiver in the postseason.

Now granted, it took four years for Allison to reach that level of production, and he lucked out by spending those years catching passes from Aaron Rodgers as a member of the Green Bay Packers but still, when you consider the Eagles’ current receiving corps has an average of two years of NFL experience, adding a veteran presence to the unit wouldn’t be the worst idea imaginable.

Unfortunately for Allison, Nick Sirianni, and the rest of the Eagles’ oeuvre, that probably won’t happen until the next offseason.

Now granted, could the Eagles put in a claim for Allison, who was just waived by the Detroit Lions? Sure. I would imagine only the Green Bay Packers and maybe the New Orleans Saints would put in an offer for his services, but riddle me this; if a receiver can’t break the Detroit Lions’ rotation, who would then suddenly be the missing piece in the Eagles’ corps?

Allison is a big-bodied receiver who can be an effective weapon in the short and intermediate parts of the field, in addition to serving as a hypothetical asset in the run game. So is JJ Arcega-Whiteside.

Allison is also the proud owner of a 60-plus percent completion percentage and could be used as a reliable possession receiver across the middle of the field deployed out of the slot. So is Greg Ward.

Allison doesn’t return kicks, doesn’t return punts, and has only recorded more than 100 special teams snaps once in his professional career.

All in all, Allison is just a guy without any elite trait and as things presently stand, the Eagles have a few of those guys and won’t even use them all that often.

Through the first 10 games of the season, JJAW and Ward have combined for four total targets, all of which went to the latter. While both are routinely active on game days baring injury, Sirianni just doesn’t run very many four or five wide receiver sets, or rotate his guys out based on down, distance, situation, or fatigue.

Despite having three receivers on their practice squad right now, Deon Cain, KeeSean Johnson, and 2020 fifth-round pick John Hightower, and had Travis Fulgham before he was released, that quartet must not be lighting it up in practice each week, as none of them have been afforded an opportunity to play thus far this season.

But who is to blame? Is it Sirianni for having a short bench? Or the team’s lack of talent, which makes taking DeVonta Smith, Quez Watkins, and Jalen Reagor off the field a bad bet in the rookie playcaller’s mind.

Probably a bit of both.

While the Eagles could and probably should rotate their receiver a bit more than they currently do, and actually target their reserves when they are in the game, Sirianni knows better than anyone else what his players can and can’t do. If he only trusts JJAW to block, why would we imagine he’d suddenly become Alshon Jeffrey, the player he was compared to coming out of college, with a half dozen targets in any given game?

Why would we imagine the addition of Allison would change anything either, for that matter?

Could the Philadelphia Eagles have done their due diligence to provide Jalen Hurts with another offensive option before the trade deadline? Yes. He had a chance to trade for Josh Reynolds before he was ultimately waived by the Tennessee Titans and was subsequently claimed by the Detroit Lions. Howie Roseman opted against it. Hopefully next spring, when veteran receivers become available at all sorts of price levels, he doesn’t allow them all to sign elsewhere like he did with Kendrick Borune this year.