Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Jordan Matthews already has 67 receptions, 872 yards and eight touchdowns to his name at the NFL level. Nelson Agholor, Philly's most recent first-round pick in late April, has yet to do anything more than catch half-speed passes and shadow block during his first set of offseason workouts with the franchise.
Despite the major discrepancy in established NFL production to date between Matthews and Agholor though, at least one unnamed NFL executive believes there's already a clear delineation between the two Eagles wideout's NFL futures.
"I look at Matthews as a good receiver, very solid in every aspect, but not a No. 1 guy," the executive said, via Mark Eckel of NJ.com. "Agholor is a No. 1. So now Matthews won't have that pressure on him. They'll be good together."
While it's certainly got to be good to hear for Eagles fans that Agholor and Matthews will likely work well together, it also has to be a bit disappointing that Matthews, a player who broke out for one of the best rookie years for a receiver the NFL's Philadelphia-based franchise has ever seen, is already viewed by some in the league as not worthy of an, ultimately meaningless, if still irksome, "No. 1 wide receiver" designation.
Then again, it's certainly good news that Agholor, who has yet to take a regular season snap, is already viewed as a potential top target for an NFL passing attack.
"He'll come in and produce right away,'' the executive said. "He has the right mentality and just a great approach to the game. He's going to help them. And in that offense, he'll put up numbers.''
Really, it's likely that Matthews and Agholor will both feature prominently, if very differently, in Eagles head coach Chip Kelly's spread attack. Matthews excels from the slot and in the red zone - he scored on 38 percent of his red zone targets last year, according to Raymond Summerlin of Rotoworld, ranking 16th among all wide receivers - and Agholor looks more like a route-perfecting field-stretcher in the mold of the recently departed Jeremy Maclin.
Kelly has kept Matthews almost exclusively in the slot thus far this offseason, despite the thought from many in the Philly media that his strong rookie showing might garner him some looks outside, so Kelly may be indicating what the unnamed NFL executive is saying with deeds as much as words - though we here at HNGN would be willing to bet Kelly would bristle pretty strongly at any talk of No. 1 wide receiver designations and really, it'd be hard to argue with him.
In the end, what's probably most important to Eagles fans is that Agholor establish himself as a reliable teammate and wide receiver in NFL Year One and find himself a place amongst the rest of Kelly's cache of offensive weaponry alongside Matthews, DeMarco Murray, Darren Sproles, Zach Ertz, and the rest.
Still, according to the excutive, it may not be crazy for Eagles fans to expect a little more than just the status quo from Agholor right off the bat.
"He should be good, real good,'' the executive said. "I'd bet on him.''
