The Philadelphia Eagles predictably procure wide receiver Zach Pascal

Folks, are you happy; the Philadelphia Eagles finally made another external free agent signing.

That’s right, after reading through thousands of angry tweets every time even a marginal free agent went off the board, some member of the Eagles’ social media team marched over to Howie Roseman’s office and begged that he sign someone, anyone, to momentarily put the pitchfork-wielding mob at bay.

A merciful general manager, Roseman obliged and committed a one-year deal to bring in a new player – at a position of need, no less – to the City of Brotherly Love.

Did you want to see the Philadelphia Eagles make another splashy signing? Well, there’s still time for that to happen, but for now, let’s welcome the most easily-mocked wide receiver on the market, ex-Indianapolis Colts pass-catcher Zach Pascal, to the NovaCare center, where his size, run-blocking, and experience will be very well appreciated across from DeVonta Smith.

Zach Pascal is the perfect hybrid three/four receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles.

For the fourth year in a row, things are shaping up for the Philadelphia Eagles to use a top-60 draft pick on a wide receiver.

Now granted, is it typically a mark of good drafting to commit premium pick after premium pick after premium pick to the same position? No, but hey, when two of those three draftees are Jalen Reagor and JJ Arcega-Whiteside, a pair of players who very well could find themselves in a different uniform come September, it’s better to use additional assets on getting it right than rolling into yet another season with an understocked collection of pass-catchers.

Goodness, from Drake London, to Treylon Burks, Chris Olave, Jameson Williams, and Garrett Wilson, the Eagles will have a wealth of talented receivers to choose from when they go on the clock three separate times from picks 15 through 19. But what if, just for the sake of argument, the players they like most – say, Drake and Burks – are off the board, and they don’t want to reach for a player like Jahan Dotson at 19? What if they roll into the second round without draft position-appropriate options and have to wait until the third round for a wide receiver who maybe isn’t ready to start at the X and/or slot spot right out of the gate?

Well that, my friends, is where the one-year deals handed out to Zach Pascal and Greg Ward become incredibly valuable, as they can play quality minutes, fill their role professionally, and eventually step aside when a rookie receiver – even one drafted in the first round – is ready to play a bigger role.

To his credit, Pascal is a player used to being a placeholder at the NFL level.

A native of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, Pascal went undrafted out of Old Dominion in 2017 before latching on with the now-Washington Commanders shortly thereafter. Despite a full summer with his hometown football team, Pascall was released in early September and spent all but one week of his first post-college season on the Tennessee Titans’ practice squad.

From there, Pascal was waived and then claimed by the Indianapolis Colts to help fill out Andrew Luck’s summer receiving corps heading into the 2018 season. Despite boasting a solid collection of wide receivers headlined by T.Y. Hilton, Chester Rogers, Ryan Grant, and Dontrelle Inman, Pascal impressed rookie head coach Frank Reich well enough to earn a spot on the 53 man roster.

Though he didn’t really start stealing snaps from the starters until his second season in Indie, Pascal made a name for himself as a rookie by hauling in two touchdowns through the air and recovering a blocked punt in the endzone of the team’s eventual loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Divisional Round of the playoffs. As the seasons passed, Pascal’s role in the offense continued to grow all the way up until the 2021 season, when his yards-per-catch averages dropped sharply paired up with Carson Wentz. Still, Pascal remained a quality performer with inside-out versatility, good pass-blocking abilities, and ultimately finished out the 2021-22 season with the second-most receiving yards on the Colts behind only 2020 second-round selected Michael Pittman Jr.

Though Pascal alone won’t magically turn the Eagles’ receiving corps from zeros to heroes, his addition does add an air of professionalism to a unit desperate for reliable pass catchers and could fill the role many envisioned for Arcega-Whiteside once the afterglow of his drafting wore off, even if a player like London or Burks is better suited for the role long-term.

So there you go; the Philadelphia Eagles signed someone. No, it’s not Jarvis Landry or Tyran Mattieu, or any of the other big named options on the board but hey, with an influx of high-upside prospects coming to the depth chart next month, landing a veteran presence like Zach Pascal, who has played for a half dozen different quarterbacks in a scheme Nick Sirianni helped to design is a good move in my book, especially if his cap hit proves to be as team-friendly as his playing style.