Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Jordan Matthews enjoyed quite the rookie season in 2014, amassing 67 receptions for 872 yards and 8 touchdowns.
Matthews was part of a historic 2014 wide receiver class which saw 33 wideouts drafted, three of which went for over 1,000-yards - a fourth finished just 23-yards shy of the mark - and three more that posted over 696-yards, one of which, of course, was Matthews.
Now that last season's de facto No. 1 wideout in Philly, Jeremy Maclin, is off to greener - or should we say, redder? - pastures, does Matthews have the opportunity to put up even more prodigious production in his second NFL season?
"Although Matthews ran a league-high 92.4 percent of his routes from the slot last season, there's reason to believe his role will be expanded this year," writes Chris Wesseling of NFL.com. "The Eagles neglected to sign a replacement for top receiver Jeremy Maclin, leaving Matthews as the obvious fill-in. More to the point, Chip Kelly has explained that he just wanted Matthews to learn one position as a rookie, allowing him to learn more assignments as his career evolves. If Matthews proves capable of succeeding Maclin and DeSean Jackson as the top target in Kelly's offense, his numbers will skyrocket."
Matthews, per a report from last January which emerged around the time of the great Roseman Promotion/Demotion, would actually have been the Eagles first-round pick last year had head coach Chip Kelly had his way.
The fact that the Eagles were able to land Matthews in the second-round while still nabbing another player in the first - even if that player was linebacker Marcus Smith - was something of a coup, though it also made the Philadelphia draft class as a whole seem much less successful. Still, it shows just how interested Kelly was in landing Matthews with the Eagles.
If Matthews, who Wesseling believes compares favorably to a "Mini Marques Colston," can expand his route tree further and provide Kelly with another weapon able to line up all across the formation, the Eagles offense will become even more versatile and explosive than it already was, no matter which former high draft pick winds up under center.
Add in another season of development for Josh Huff and the highly polished skillset of recent first-rounder Nelson Agholor and the notoriously hard working and hungry for success Matthews may be set to lead something of a receiving revolution in Philadelphia next year and beyond.
