Philadelphia Eagles: Why isn’t Tyree Jackson getting more targets?

Over the summer, there wasn’t a player on the Philadelphia Eagles‘ roster who generated more hype than 2019 UDFA Tyree Jackson.

A collegiate quarterback by trade, Jackson converted to tight end after unproductive tenures as a signal-caller for the Buffalo Bills and the DC Defenders of the semi-defunct XFL and drew rave reviews for his massive frame, huge wingspan, and surprisingly smooth transition from throwing balls to catching them.

Sure, the Eagles still had Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert, slotting Jackson in at best as the team’s third tight end, but the former was a borderline guarantee to be traded eventually and the latter hadn’t quite proven himself a high-end starter in the eyes of Howie Roseman, let alone a player worthy of a massive, multi-year extension. If Jackson could transition his summer success into the regular season, who knows; maybe the Eagles would have the next Logan Thomas.

And then, disaster struck.

While joint practicing with the New England Patriots, Jackson broke his back and was placed on IR immediately after the 53 man roster was formalized, which would allow him to eventually return to the field once fully healthy. That finally happened in Week 9, when Jackson made his NFL debut versus the Los Angeles Chargers two and a half years after he was slinging passes at the University of Buffalo. With Ertz migrating west to the deserts of Arizona, surely Jackson would take the field, earn his opportunities, and run with them on the way to a breakout half-season right?

Except that hasn’t been what happened. Tyree Jackson has been targeted one time by the Philadelphia Eagles on 60 offensive snaps and has effectively been a non-factor in all four of the games he’s appeared in. But why?

The Philadelphia Eagles need to get Tyree Jackson more involved.

Over the past four weeks, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts has thrown the ball 95 times, completing 54 of his passes for 616 yards, three touchdowns, and four interceptions. Hurts has also run the ball 49 times for 263 yards and fumbled the ball once – which he recovered – but that isn’t particularly relevant to this particular discussion… probably.

Those 95 targets went to 11 different players, five wide receivers, three tight ends, and three running backs.

In a vacuum, there’s nothing abnormal about targeting that many different pass-catchers over a four-game tenure. Plenty of teams like to get the majority of their pass catcher options involved in any given game, as typically, a savvy GM will fill out their roster with both multi-faceted pass catchers who can fill a number of different roles and bottom-of-the-roster specialists who can do fewer things but do them at a high level.

The problem with the Eagles’ offensive distribution isn’t the number of players targeted. No, it’s the distribution of how the targets are being dished out, and who Hurts/Nick Sirianni feel comfortable throwing the ball to.

You see, 43 percent of the Eagles’ targets over the past four weeks and roughly 48 percent of their catches went to two players, DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert. That makes sense, as the dynamic duo are unquestionably the team’s top two offensive weapons and the Eagles ran the ball 66 more times than they threw it, but when you only target a few players in any given game, it’s a whole lot easier for opposing defenses to take away those options and force targets to lesser proven options, especially on the final drives of a divisional-round game down six.

Needless to say, the Eagles need to do whatever they can to diversify their target distribution at least a little bit in the hopes of providing some parody to their offensive attack and moving the ball in less predictable ways.

Why not throw a few of those targets Tyree Jackson’s way?

Again, Jackson is an easy player to ID from a quarterback’s perspective because he’s quite literally one of the tallest players in the NFL. His height, arm length, wingspan, and hand size all rank in the 90th or better percentile according to Mockdraftables, and few opposing teams have a defender who can match up against him one-on-one, let alone contest a 50-50 ball thrown his way. While Hurts has a bit of a reputation for not being the biggest fan of throwing the ball across the middle of the field, having a target like Jackson who is two inches taller and has a three-inch longer wingspan certainly presents some interesting opportunities in the short-to-intermediate game, especially if the duo take the field together in 11 personnel grouping.

And yet, Jackson has earned 43 fewer offensive snaps, two fewer targets, and thus, two fewer catches than 2021 UDFA tight end Jack Stoll, who himself has only been targeted four times so far this season despite receiving an average of 17 offensive snaps per game.

But why? Could it be because Hurts runs the ball a little over 10 times per game, many of them improvised scrambles, and Jackson is neither an experienced run blocker who can open up running lanes downfield nor an experienced enough pass-catcher to improvise downfield and get himself open? Or maybe Jackson simply isn’t back to his summer form, as I would imagine a broken back isn’t the easiest thing to come back from?

Either way, even if the Eagles still have a chance to make the playoffs, that doesn’t mean they can’t afford to throw a few targets Jackson’s way each game, as believe you me, there have been entire quarters that the team has thrown away without much to show for it but a few more punts on Arryn Siposs’ stat sheet.

Will Tyree Jackson ultimately work out? Will he eventually leapfrog Dallas Goedert on Nick Sirainni’s depth chart, or at least serve as a viable TE2 for years to come? Only time will tell, but it’s pretty safe to say the 24-year-old isn’t going to magically unlock his potential as a tight end by simply catching passes in practice and watching from the sidelines for all but 15 offensive snaps per game. If the Philadelphia Eagles are genuinely as excited about Jackson’s on-field potential as Howie Roseman sounded in his post-Zach Ertz trade presser, it might be wise to throw a few more passes his way in any given week and see what happens.