Pederson Still has Confidence in Wide Receivers
Although Eagles fans would like to see the team add depth at the wide receiver position, head coach Doug Pederson thinks his squad is in a good place with the current group.
In Sunday’s loss against the Dallas Cowboys, Alshon Jeffery was the teams leading wide receiver, catching two balls for 38 yards. Overall, the receiving core had just four catches for 62 yards in the loss to the Cowboys.
There has already been two trades in the NFL this week involving wideouts, Mohamed Sanu went from Atlanta to New England and Emmanuel Sanders was traded from Denver to San Francisco.
Sanu and Sanders have a combined 63 catches for 680 yards and three scores. The group of Alshon Jeffery, Nelson Agholor, Mack Hollins and J.J. Arcega-Whiteside have just 63 total catches for 646 yards and six touchdowns combined.
The head coach of the Eagles discussed the receiving situation at Monday's day-after press conference.
"It’s still a group that we have a lot of confidence in, a lot of trust, a lot of faith in," Pederson told reporters. "We've had opportunities to complete balls down the field we've missed. We missed last night in the game and we have to keep – we just have to keep working. We can't stop working. There is a lot of football left."
While Pederson expressed confidence, trust and faith, he admitted that the team needs more production from the current unit.
"There’s some good and there's some not so good," Pederson acknowledged. "It’s hard when your quarterback sometimes doesn't necessarily have all the time to throw. He's having to scramble and move around and it gets you off rhythm, gets you off schedule. So that's a part of it. We are getting some guys open and it's been documented already with drops and different things like that this year."
Although the team is hopeful DeSean Jackson will return soon, Pederson didn't sound like he was going to be ready to play again this week.
"DeSean, those guys, are all working and doing their -- they are in their rehab, in their protocols," Pederson explained when asked about Jackson's availability. "Obviously, we'll find out more on Wednesday. But would expect, probably those guys early in the week probably won't practice."
Jackson has eight catches for 154 yards and two touchdowns.
This week in Buffalo, the Eagles could really use a threat like Jackson, the Bills defense is fourth in the league against the pass, giving up just 201 yards per game.