PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia Eagles' offense has been one of the best in the NFL in 2022. The team has consistently been at the top of the league in both explosive plays, and turnover differential.
The passing game has shined, the run game has shined, and the entire unit has been a huge reason for the undefeated 6-0 start.
One player, however, that has unexpectedly not contributed to the hot start is wide receiver Quez Watkins.
Through six games, Watkins has just six catches for 88 yards and one touchdown. He has one or no receptions in four of those contests.
That production pales in comparison that to his first six games in 2021 as a starter, where Watkins had 16 receptions for 311 yards.
Why has there been such a drop off in production for the third year receiver?
The obvious answer is the big three that are featured ahead of him, as A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Dallas Goedert have all had monster starts.
Brown leads the team with 503 yards, Smith is second with 397, and Goedert isn’t too far behind currently at 357. The three have made up nearly 75% of the team’s total receptions, 83% of the total yards, and five of the six passing touchdowns.
It is hard to blame Jalen Hurts for targeting those three.
Is there a team this year that has a better trio of pass catchers? Only a few offenses could even make a fair argument.
Not getting the ball hasn’t been a matter of Watkins taking a step back. When they have given him chances to make plays downfield in Week 2 and 3 matchups, you can still see the impact he can have. Against the Vikings, Watkins scored a 53-yard touchdown and had another 16-yard reception.
He also drew two deep pass interference calls against Washington that made up 40 total yards for the offense.
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The Southern Mississippi product just isn’t seeing the volume of targets or opportunities deep and in the screen game that he was used to, like last year, when he was the second option at receiver.
There have been four games where Watkins has seen just one or no targets at all. He had two targets against Minnesota, and four against Arizona.
Pressure has also been a big factor.
Over the last three weeks, defenses have tried to slow down the Eagles offense by blitzing a lot more than the first three games. This has led to less deep shots from Hurts, which of course is where Watkins makes his money.
If Hurts and the offensive line can figure out the blitz by getting the ball out faster, and buying more time, it should lead to more chances for the speedster.
Watkins won’t see the target share that he was used to in 2021. He is going to have to be very efficient with his touches moving forward with stars in front of him.
However, the Eagles need to make sure he is getting more chances to use his dynamic playmaking ability.
He is too dangerous to have this small of a role.