Eagles receiver primed for breakout game against Redskins

First round pick Nelson Agholor hasn’t exactly lit up the stat sheet in his opening three weeks in the NFL, but that doesn’t mean that he isn’t already turning heads. The USC product has been dangerously close to having some huge plays to his name and is surely just quarters away from his first touchdown.

Agholor currently has four receptions for 36 yards after his first three games with a longest reception of nine yards. But after being targeted twelve times, his name seems to have fallen through the ranks and under the radar. A lot of these incompletions however can be discredited. Agholor had two notable drops against the Jets, one was underthrown by Bradford and hit the ground inches before Agholor could put a glove on it and the other just missed the wide receiver. This has happened at least once per game which certainly would generously increase his percentages if the passes were completed.

But what people aren’t talking about is how open he gets on the plays the ball doesn’t arrive. Agholor came up against Darelle Revis on Sunday..one of the finest in his position. Interestingly enough, the Jets kept their number one corner on the rookie wide receiver for a huge portion of the game..why? Jordan Matthews is their number one target and both Miles Austin and Riley Cooper were seeing more attention. Because the Jets saw him as a threat. They knew that once Agholor gets open, he would be gone in 60 (mili)seconds as seen here.

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Sam Bradford needs to find ways to thread the ball to Agholor. The receiver was lined up for all 31 of the Eagles pass routes in week three and targeted for just over 25%.  But when Bradford is busy looking for his number one man, the Eagles number one sleeper is busy getting wide open..

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The above image was an incomplete pass to Matthews in the second quarter. But who was open at the goal-line having completely lost his coverage? Nelson Agholor. The same thing happened time and time again against the Jets. Now does this further cement the widely thought opinion that Bradford doesn’t like throwing deep balls, or does it bring a new question to the table. Just how confident is Bradford in his receivers if he is only targeting the same guys?

In fact, Agholor has the most snaps of any receiver in the team..and has been targeted the least. Agholor has 174 total snaps whilst Cooper is second playing in 108. But why could Agholor finally get the breakout game he so gracefully deserves?

Without DeAngelo Hall, the Redskins are scarily thin at Corner..meaning Agholor’s likely matchup will be Bashaud Breeland, who just so happened to allow two touchdowns and over 100 yards on just 10 targets in week three…and we thought Maxwell struggled…

One gleaming problem with this Offense has been Bradford’s inability to air out deep balls. The Cowboys predicted and prepared perfectly and after a while the Jets caught on to the whole outside zone play..leaving them scoreless in the last two quarters. The Eagles need to show some versatility and they have the perfect player and indeed the perfect matchup to unleash some new plays. We could show an arsenal of screenshots from week three where Agholor is in acres of space, but we have made our point. If Sam Bradford can trust in the rookie, then this Eagles Offense could finally not only put up numbers in all four quarters…but dominate all four quarters.