2020 NFL Draft: Five first-round targets for the Philadelphia Eagles

By the end of the 2019 season, the lack of quality receivers on the Eagles roster was obvious and perhaps played the biggest role in this team’s failure to advance past the first round of the playoffs.

Although the Eagles drafted a wide receiver in the second round of the 2019 Draft, Stanford’s J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, there is a strong indication that the Eagles will try again at the receiver position in the upcoming draft.

In a postseason press conference with Roseman, the general manager indicated that Arcega-Whiteside had not lived up to the expectations of the Eagles scouting department in 2019. On top of that, Roseman stated that the scouting department might have to change the way they look at wide receivers in the scouting process for the 2020 NFL Draft.

For some context about how poorly this draft pick turned out in 2019, let’s look at Arcega-Whiteside’s total season receiving yards. After 17 games this past season, he finished the season with just 169 total receiving yards, according to ESPN. Meanwhile, D.K. Metcalf, the Seattle Seahawks rookie receiver drafted AFTER Arcega-Whiteside earned 160 yards receiving in just the Wild Card game against the Eagles.

Reports suggest Roseman’s comment indicates that Arcega-Whiteside could have been a pick that was highly pushed for by Joe Douglas, the Eagles ex-Vice President of Player Personnel and current New York Jets general manager. Douglas in previous drafts has favored drafting wide receivers with a lot of production in college.

Roseman referenced wide receivers drafted in 2019 who produced much better than Arcega-Whiteside this season but lacked college production.

“There have been some successful receivers from this draft class…I think when we look at it, the most surprising thing for us… is that there are three rookie receivers who never had more than 40 catches in a college season who have been tremendously productive this year.

Is that a factor for us when we look at college production and we kind of see how important that is to us, do we have to go back and look at that? And I think we do.”

-General Manager Howie Roseman

As Agholor is not likely to be re-signed as a free agent and Alshon Jeffery is on the last year of his contract extension in 2020, the Eagles will be highly motivated to pick up an elite receiver in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft. This opens up the door for a player like Henry Ruggs III, a junior from the Alabama Crimson Tide.

The top-ranked wide receiver in the 2020 NFL Draft, Jerry Jeudy from Alabama, will most likely be gone from the draft board by the time the Eagles get to draft. This should be of little concern for Philadelphia’s scouting department, however. Ruggs has shown to be an explosive playmaker, who can stretch the field as well as Jeudy can.

DeSean Jackson was supposed to play that role for the Eagles in 2019, but his age and injury history indicates that he is not the deep-threat option the Eagles can rely on in the long-term. Jackson has not played a full sixteen-game season since 2013. Most seasons he has injuries that require him to miss time. Jackson and Wentz looked to have developed a solid connection in the offseason and played well together in the Week 1 opener. But the Eagles cannot rely on a player like that as the long-term solution in Philadelphia.

On forty receptions this past season, Ruggs averaged 18.7 yards per reception on 40 catches, according to Sports-Reference.com. That is better than Jeudy on yards per reception. Ruggs had almost half the number of receptions as Jeudy had, but earned similar production numbers, earning only 3 fewer touchdowns than Jeudy. Ruggs was also one of the best in yards after the catch  (YAC) in 2019 and second for Alabama, per Pro Football Focus.

Ruggs played for Nick Saban, who has one of the most pro-friendly systems in all of college football. This means his players can transition much easier into the NFL than many other programs. Ruggs has shown in his three seasons to be an excellent receiver, with above-average hands and is adept at avoiding tacklers.

The biggest selling point for the Philadelphia Eagles on Ruggs should be his ability to open up the field. Ruggs is an excellent sprinter and has the speed to give opposing cornerbacks trouble in the NFL. His route-running is a little unsophisticated. But at 6-foot, 190 pounds, Ruggs has the size and speed to leave opposing secondaries in the dust on game day.

His overall production in college has been less than ideal, only earning twenty-four touchdowns in three seasons. But with the Eagles general manager acknowledging this past week that college production shouldn’t be the only metric considered when evaluating wide receivers, I expect the Eagles should be taking a serious look at Ruggs in the 2020 NFL Draft.