The Young Receivers

[PhillyPhreak54]

Let's take a break from looking at the bad from last night and look at the good. The yound WRs all played very nicely last night.

Reggie Brown - He was matched up on Shawn Springs on that shallow cross and he out ran Sean Taylor to the end-zone. He also had a very nice catch and run on that final drive. He finished with 5 receptions for 94 yards and a touchdown. He's certainly breaking that rookie WR stigma, IMO. You've got to credit him for staying in the playbook and learning it and not acting like he's all world before he's done anything like our last high draft pick WR who was here. If Reggie continues to develop like this then I think we all should have something to look forward to.

Billy McMullen - I think I might be the only one who hasn't written this guy off yet. We all know the history with him. McNabb calls him "hands" his first year and once that pass bounced off his shoulder pads in that loss to Dallas in 2003 he disappeared. He's had confidence issues and all that stuff too. But he's got size and I know it's cliche, but you can't teach size. That seam route he ran (same pattern in the SD game too) was very nice and Theismann and Maguire (shocking!) made a nice observation that he didn't look back too early to give away the ball coming to him. He's got his confidence up and he showed nice hands last night as well. Look at the way he catches the ball....he is not a body catcher. He gets his hands out in front of him and plucks it out of the air. He had 3 catches for 60 yards.

Greg Lewis - Yeah, he's technically the "#1 WR" now and he's no Todd Pinkston as far as stretching the field goes. But he does good things in the underneath routes, which Todd cannot or does not like to do. In my opinion he's a good possession type receiver.

These 3 guys are very encouraging to me. Even if the team fails to reach the playoffs this year these guys getting a lot of playing time is a good thing.

I am looking forward to watching Brown & McMullen play each week. I think we should particularly be excited about Reggie.

[DonovanTheMessiah]

You couldn't have asked for a better night from the WR's. If they play like that every week, we'll be fine.


I was really impressed with McMullen. Those catches he made weren't easy catches, but he made them look easy. Wish we would've given him another chance in the end zone at the end of the game, though.

[SunMo]

i'm not as impressed with Greg Lewis as you are Phreak.  I expected him to be the deep threat that Pinkston was last year, because all you ever heard was that he was the fastest guy on the team, but he just hasn't shown that ability to fight for the ball once it's in the air like Pinkston has.  Also, he's had some bad drops this year.  That ball that they called incomplete that got reviewed hit him right in the chest and he should've caught it easily.

I agree with you on Brown though, it looks like they might have something with him. 

[Mad-Lad]

I think I might be the only one who hasn't written this guy off yet.

I'm the biggest McMullen fan ever.

[rjs246]

I was impressed with Wilbur last night as well, which was surprising. If he can somehow keep his head together and build some confidence from last night, we could have something there.

Reggie showed something that I needed to see to ease my mind with this TO crap and that is the ability to run after the catch. HUGE.

I agree that Greg Lewis seems like nothing more than a possession receiver right now. That completely sucks given that he was supposed to be a burner for them.

I'm not sure that this has the potential to be an elite group but the Brown, Lewis, McMullen, McCants groups has some size and ability and that's pretty promising.

[PhillyPhreak54]

i'm not as impressed with Greg Lewis as you are Phreak.  I expected him to be the deep threat that Pinkston was last year, because all you ever heard was that he was the fastest guy on the team, but he just hasn't shown that ability to fight for the ball once it's in the air like Pinkston has.  Also, he's had some bad drops this year.  That ball that they called incomplete that got reviewed hit him right in the chest and he should've caught it easily.

I agree with you on Brown though, it looks like they might have something with him. 

Here's my thing on Lewis...

Yes, i am disappointed that he is not the down-the-field guy that we thought he'd be. But maybe he just hasn't developed that part of his game yet? After all he still is just a 3rd year UDFA in his first year of starting. Perhaps, with more work, he'll develop the ability to be a deep threat.

But even if he is not that type of guy, I still like the possession skills that he's showing. I also like the fact that he can and will take a big hit and still hold the ball. He's a slight build but he has no beef with going into the land of LBs and Ss and grabbing a ball.

Every team needs that possession type guy. I think of Wayne Chrebet, Brandon Stokely, Keyshawn Johnson and other guys who aren't exactly big play guys but who move the chains. And on a predominantly passing team - they need that.

2006:

1 - (free agent signing)
2 - Todd Pinkston (if that achilles heals)
3 - Reggie Brown
4 - Greg Lewis
5 - Billy McMullen
6 - Darnerian McCants

Not too shabby, IMO.

[MURP]

Reggie Brown is coming along nicely.  McMullen... meh.  He played well for 1 game in his career.  Lets hope its the start of something but im not holding my breath.  Greg Lewis, well I think he is better suited as a #3. Not a bad player, but just very average.  I expected more out of him.  I feel like we are always waiting and hoping that the Eagles WR's will become something special.   I mean, the Eagles havnt drafted a WR that turned into anything special since Fred Barnett and Calvin Williams.    I think we have these talks every year about how the young WR's are looking good and we get a little excited about it.  Then they end up sucking every single time.  Even the FA's have been blah. If we had this board back in the early 90's we could have started there.     

Maybe Victor Bailey will be good.   nah
Maybe Chris T Joneswill be good..   nah
Maybe Na Brown will be good.   nah
Maybe Todd Pinkston will be good.   ehhhhhh
Maybe Freddie Mitchell will be good.  nah
Maybe Freddie Milons will be good.  nah
Maybe Billy McMullen will be good.   certainly not yet.
Maybe Antonio Freeman will be good.  meh
Maybe Charles Johnson will be good.  meh
Maybe Torrance Small will be good.  meh

and all the others that have come and gone.    Irving Fryar was decent for the short time he was here.  I feel like it is groundhog day with the WR's every year.  They show some promise, then never pan out.   I guess if you try enough you have to get it right sometime.  Maybe this crop can do it, but I wont believe it until I see it. 

[SunMo]

i seem to remember Chris T. Jones being pretty good before he had a serious injury?

[MDS]

there only fa wr worthy of a 1 label is reggie wayne. and hes not even that good. id rather spend our money on the oline and defense. with mcnabb, westbrook and lj, we can be fine with a young group of recievers (pink, reg, glew, wilbur).

[rjs246]

2006:

1 - (free agent signing)
2 - Todd Pinkston (if that achilles heals)
3 - Reggie Brown
4 - Greg Lewis
5 - Billy McMullen
6 - Darnerian McCants

Not too shabby, IMO.

Terrible pun on the achilles. Just terrible.

If Brown continues to show RAC ability he should be starting. I like Pinkston as a guy to stretch the field, but we can do better as far as starting WRs go so I'm not sure I want him back since he is pretty much a one-trick pony. Whatever. 8 games left in this season. might be a little early to talk about next year's receiving corps.

[MURP]

i seem to remember Chris T. Jones being pretty good before he had a serious injury?

yep, he had one pretty good season and then he was hurt and gone.  typical. 

[fansince61]

I like what I saw from the young guys last night but I would like to see it two weeks in a row

[PhillyPhreak54]

2006:

1 - (free agent signing)
2 - Todd Pinkston (if that achilles heals)
3 - Reggie Brown
4 - Greg Lewis
5 - Billy McMullen
6 - Darnerian McCants

Not too shabby, IMO.

Terrible pun on the achilles. Just terrible.

If Brown continues to show RAC ability he should be starting. I like Pinkston as a guy to stretch the field, but we can do better as far as starting WRs go so I'm not sure I want him back since he is pretty much a one-trick pony. Whatever. 8 games left in this season. might be a little early to talk about next year's receiving corps.

I didn't even realize the pun when I typed it.

It is too early to talk about it. Especially since this one ain't over yet. But I like what Brown is showing. And you know Todd gets his starting job back. That's Andy's boy. But I hope that Brown continues to show us something.

[Wingspan]

i am sitting here trying to figure out what gave people these high expectations of Greg Lewis?

i've been fine with him so far this year. maybe because i really didnt expect any more than 2 catches a game or so. he's not really anything worth praising over the entire course of a season, but at the same time, he isn't a bad reciever either.

he's basically your average NFL WR. a good backup, who can fill in when needed, and make a big play every once in a while.

[Diomedes]

I said in the mid-season grades thread that Billy and Reggie are bright spots on this O.  I feel good saying that mostly because our expectations for them are pretty low, but I think they've both already surpassed them.

I desperately want TO gone so that we can see 8 full games from Reggie as the starter, with McMullen in for 3 WR sets.

Regarding G.Lew, I am not in any way dissappointed in him.  I knew when Pink went down that we had lost the deep threat, and I said so at the time.  G.Lew doesn't provide that.  But his possession skills are fine, and don't forget: he was a rookie free agent.  Signed cheap for the long term, every catch he makes is money in the bank.