Why Eagles coach Nick Sirianni won't give up on Quez Watkins

Why Nick Sirianni won't give up on Quez Watkins originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

One of the more intriguing returning guys on the Eagles’ roster is Quez Watkins, who followed a breakout 2021 season with a disappointing, mistake-prone 2022 season.

The explosive plays turned into costly mistakes, and Watkins goes into the offseason as a huge question mark in the Eagles’ wide receiver room.

Will the Eagles give up on Watkins after his fumbles, drops and misplays had a significant role in three of the Eagles’ four losses?

Or will he be back for a fourth season with the hope that he can regain his form of two years ago?

Nick Sirianni gave a pretty strong hint at the answer on Tuesday, when he spoke highly of Watkins, who is still only 24 years old.

“Quez did a lot of things that really affected the game that don’t show up in the stat sheet with how he stretches the field,” Sirianni said. “A lot of the balls that A.J. (Brown) caught over the middle, if you look at the tape, you see Quez running through the middle to pull a safety out of there and to really stretch the field to make sure the window’s open there.

“And so I would say the opportunity, I would say the difference this year and last year was opportunity. He didn’t have as many opportunities. And we tried to be up front about that as much as we can and say, ‘Hey, this pass game runs through (Brown, DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert), and Quez, you’re going to have to do this and make plays when it’s time to make plays,’ and so I think what he was probably frustrated with is that he didn’t make the amount of plays that he made last year.

“He did have some timely plays for us, but sometimes what happens is when there’s a play with everything on the line, you throw to A.J., you throw to Dallas, you throw to DeVonta. It’s not an indication that we don’t trust Quez, it’s just an indication that our pass game runs through those three guys.”

That’s all very well and good, but the reality is that even with Brown in the mix this past year, Watkins’ snaps and targets didn't drop very much.

Watkins played in all 17 games in both 2021 and 2022, and targets fell from 62 to 51 and snaps dropped from 45 to 40. So he got half a target fewer per game and played only five fewer snaps per game.

The big difference was production, not opportunity.

He dropped from 38 to 21 yards per game and from 15 yards per catch to just under 11. Most importantly, big plays plunged. He had 12 catches of 20 yards in 2021 and just five this past year.

And then there were the negative plays – the fumble vs. the Commanders, the two Gardner Minshew interceptions in Dallas when he didn’t battle hard enough for the ball, the devastating drop in the Super Bowl.

Watkins spoke at locker cleanout day about how disappointed he was in his performance this year, and that’s an important step toward moving on.

It would be easy for the Eagles to look at Watkins as a disappointment and move on. But you have a 24-year-old receiver who’s got over 1,000 yards the last two years, has the 6th-most 50-yard catches in the NFL since 2021 and is under a rookie contract in 2023.

Do you have a better chance finding a guy who delivered what Watkins did in 2021 in the middle or late rounds of the draft or on the street or by bringing Watkins back and hoping for a bounce-back season?

The way Sirianni spoke gives you the likely answer.

“I know Quez wanted to make some of the plays that he felt like he didn’t,” Sirianni said. “I think also what he’s saying there is he’s taking ownership and accountability of him getting better and not looking at anybody else, and that’s what you want from your team.

“For everybody to look in the mirror and say, ‘How do I get better? How do I help this team win that last game?’ And we’ve got a long way before we’ll ever be in that position again, but, ‘How do I get better to help our team win one game or get better in practice.’

“So Quez is embodying what our team embodies, the accountability piece of how he gets better and only worrying about that and trying to get better for the sake of the team.”