A team with a roster as deep as the Philadelphia Eagles will find itself with connections all over the league. Top teams often simply don't have enough roster spots to hang onto all of their talent, and other squads are happy to reap the benefits. That means the offseason is always interesting for Philly fans — even though their team is rarely at the center of the drama, there are lots of old familiar faces to track. And one may have played his final NFL snap.
Quez Watkins played 54 games (playoffs included) for the Birds over four years after being a sixth-round pick in 2020, but he walked in the offseason after making a crucial drop in Philly's Super Bowl LVII loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. He's bounced around the league since then, and now has been cut from his latest team with an undisclosed injury. That means the mistake in the Super Bowl could prove to be the final big on-field moment of his NFL career.
Former Eagle Quez Watkins' Injury Could End NFL Career
The Arizona Cardinals terminated Watkins' contract on Sunday with an injury settlement. This came shortly after placing Watkins on Injured Reserve (which would have been season-ending) on August 2. There's no word on what the injury was, but he left practice early on July 31 before being placed on IR that weekend. This isn't to say the injury itself is a career-ender (the extent or variety hasn't been publicly disclosed), but more that the situation could be career-ending.
Watkins is now an injured 27-year-old journeyman. He didn't play a single snap in 2024, spending the entire year on the Pittsburgh Steelers' practice squad, and he was only able to land a reserve/future contract (essentially, a shot at trying to make another practice squad) with the Arizona Cardinals in 2025.
He's not ancient at 27, but pedigree starts to matter here. If a team is going to keep a WR on the practice squad, there needs to be a convincing reason. One common one is that it's a youngster with lots of upside. That's no longer the case for Watkins. So what kind of 27-year-old WRs do land on practice squads?
It's often veterans with some NFL experience who could step in onto the gameday roster in case of injury. And Watkins has some of that experience, but hasn't exactly proven much with it. His best season came back in 2021 — ages ago by NFL standards. And whether you agree with the concept or not, NFL Draft stock seems to follow players through their whole careers. Coaches always seem to think that they can be the one to unlock some potential from a former top draft pick (don't be surprised if Nelson Agholor ends up on another practice squad this offseason). As a sixth-round pick, Watkins gets no such benefit.
And now, he's also got to convince teams that he's fully healthy, too. And if this is a season-ending injury, he's back in the same boat while looking for a team next offseason. Except then he'd be a 28-year-old former sixth-round pick who was a full season removed from playing any football, and two seasons removed from seeing any live game action.
Watkins didn't exactly end his Eagles career on a high note, and now it looks like that Super Bowl drop could prove to be his final moment in the spotlight.