DORIAL Green-Beckham being cut is no surprise in itself. I mean at some level in part, it’s just a numbers game. Like last year, the Eagles are probably only keeping 5 or 6 active WR’s. Three of those will be Alshon Jeffrey, Torrey Smith and Jordan Matthews. So beyond that, every name on the roster was and will be, up in the air until final cuts are made on September 2nd.
I was pleasantly surprised by part of the news surrounding Green-Beckham being waived. It’s to be expected that the Law Firm (Jeffrey, Smith and Matthews)* would be ahead of Green-Beckham on the depth chart. What I was surprised by, was that Bryce Treggs was also listed ahead of him.
Last year on Treggs’s first NFL catch, he hauled in a 58 yard pass (and nearly scored), right down the middle of the giants defense. It was the shot in the arm that our deep passing game had needed so badly. Suddenly it looked like we might have stumbled onto a deep threat. At which point Treggs basically disappeared. For whatever reason, he was used on more modest routes, and on Jet Sweeps.
It also didn’t help that in 12 targets last year, he only caught 3 of them. (No, the other 9 weren’t drops.)
This offseason when we signed Torrey Smith as our resident deep threat, it seemed the book had been closed on Treggs. There was no way that he would get into the top six, right? Not with the Law Firm, Nelson Agholor, Green-Beckham, and RB/WR Byron Marshall, all ahead of him.
However, the release of Green-Beckham now clears a seat at that table for Treggs. It also gives an outside shot to guys like rookie Mack Hollins, and to working class hero, Paul Turner. My favorite part, is what it could do for the team. You say that you hadn’t thought about that part? Well get ready to smile like an idiot.
Treggs possesses DeSean Jackson-type speed and acceleration (but without the change of direction skills). Still, the idea of having both him AND Smith… I’ve been an Eagles fan since 1989 (put away the calculator, that’s almost 28 years), and at no point during that span has this team EVER had two deep threats like this, on the roster at one time. Provided that Treggs can beat out Agholor or Marshall, the sky could be the limit for this Offense.
It’s funny. All this talk about our WR’s, yet QB Carson Wentz receiving so many new weapons, could end up being the NFL’s greatest catch of the year.
*Law Firm! I coined it! Now when people ask where that nickname got started, you can tell ’em that you were there at the beginning, and helped spread the name around. And yes, I’m aware that the nickname was used by BenJarvus Green-Ellis already. However, if the Jets can steal ‘Gang Green’, and the giants can steal ‘Thunder and Lightning’, then we can boost a nickname too.
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