2014 was a very historic wide receiver draft class. Wait, scratch that, it was THE wide receiver draft class.
Two full seasons have yet to pass and people are prepared to call this the greatest wide receiver class of all time and the craziest part is that people aren’t even jumping the shark in saying that. This draft ushered in a new era of NFL wide receivers. To put it in perspective, 11 of the NFL’s top 50 receiving leaders were taken in last year’s draft. That means better than one out of every five league leading receivers were taken in 2014.
This class was like a clearance sale on elite playmakers. The Eagles filled their shopping cart early with some things that looked good at the time, but now they are starting to give me buyers remorse.
We may only be one draft class removed, but it is becoming pretty clear who the bad asses and the busts are of 2014. Odell Beckham is starting to catch Jerry Rice comparisons, while DaVante Adams can’t even catch the football. Mike Evans has the hops to jump out of a stadium, while Paul Richardson doesn’t even have a knee to jump on. John Brown is helping to turn Carson Palmer into the second coming of Kurt Warner, while Cody Latimer is having a hard time finding a quarterback, and vice versa.
The studs of this draft class have been blazing up the NFL, and Im not talking Josh Gordon. The players who are making their presence felt now seem as though they’ll be doing so for a very long time. And with how good some of these players look, it makes you start to question the guy your team took if he has yet to start producing. Case in point: Jordan Matthews and Josh Huff.
Yeah, the Eagles took two receivers and neither are playing so hot, although Jordan Matthews is one of those 11 top 50 receiving leaders, he’s still producing far worse than what was expected of him. Only one other team took multiple wide receivers as early as the Eagles did in 2014 and that team was the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The first wide receiver the Jags took was Marques Lee, a first round caliber player with an injury history that scared off half the league. He’s been struggling to see playing time due to one of wide receiver they grabbed after him, Allen Hurns. The undrafted free agent that torched the Eagles in their home opener last year has turned in a sophomore campaign worth bragging about with 863 yards receiving and 8 TDs. He’s turned into a major home run threat and sits ninth in the NFL in TDs and second on his team.
The other player the Jags took was one the Eagles looked long and hard at. Going into the draft, two of the wide receivers the Eagles were most linked to were Jordan Matthews and Allen Robinson. Come draft day, the Eagles trade a third round pick to move into the top ten of the second round to grab Matthews, the Jags meanwhile jumped from picks 70 to 61 to snag Allen Robinson late in the second.
Jordan Matthews has 680 yards receiving and 4 TDs, while Allen Robinson is eighth in the league in receiving with 1054 yards and tied for first with 12 TDs. And people wonder why I still wish the Eagles had gone with Gus Bradley.
As of right now Robinson and Hurns blow Matthews and Huff out of the water, just imagine if Marques Lee ever lives up to his potential. But it’s not just Robinson and Hurns, there were plenty of other quality receivers passed up by the Eagles so they could take this dynamic duo.
you could make the argument that Odell Beckham Jr. has the best hands in the NFL, and yet, when they both came out of LSU, Jarvis Landry was the one considered to have the better hands. Landry was taken 21 picks after Matthews.
No one knew much about John Brown coming out of Pittsburg State, but we did know one thing, the kid was explosive. The Cardinals took a flier on him in the late third round. Brown has 895 yards receiving, while Josh Huff has just 252; that is less than either Darren Sproles or DeMarco Murray. Huff was taken five picks before Brown.
Donte Moncrief was taken four picks after Josh Huff. Moncrief is the Colts number two receiver and has been without his starting QB for the majority of the season, yet has only 11 yards less than Jordan Matthews and one more touchdown. Matthews was taken a round and 16 picks before Moncrief.
Martavis Bryant has only played 18 career games and has 14 career TDs. Huff is suppose to be the closest thing this team has to a home run threat and he has three career touchdowns. Jordan Matthews has played 11 more games and has two less TDs. Bryant was taken two rounds after Matthews and one after Huff.
Now don’t get me wrong, Jordan Matthews and Josh Huff are two players I do have faith in, but I’d give up my faith for a proven commodity in a heart beat. They’re young and they are still adapting to their new roles so they’ll need time to develop, but thankfully, they’re still young.
As of right now, Matthews and Huff sit in the unproven commodity bin with Cody Latimer, Davante Adams, and Paul Richardson. All of these players have shown some shred of potential, they just need to build on it. some players have excuses like poor QB play, disuse, or injury, but in the cases of Matthews and Adams, they don’t have much of a case.
But remember, an unproven commodity after three or more seasons is a bust.
Of all the names I’ve listed, the only one I excuse the Eagles for is John Brown, I mean seriously Pittsburg State, WHODATHUNK? But that’s it, the Eagles had their chance to get nearly any of the players I mentioned.
Seeing so much success in a draft class where the Eagles took two receivers early is extremely frustrating, especially given frustrating state of the Eagles’ wide receivers. Reminds me of when the Timberwolves used back to back picks on point guards and missed out on Steph Curry.
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