Eagles Foreshadow an Upgrade to Return Game
One significant need for the Eagles that gets little traction from fans musing about needs is the return game where Jalen Reagor and Quez Watkins were less than impressive during the 2021 season.
The need for improvement there doesn’t generate many headlines because kickoff returns have never meant less in the league due to the safety concerns that have resulted in massive scalebacks in the opportunities to even take the football back.
Punt returns have also become devalued thanks to the ever-evolving talents of the league’s punters who have the ability to kick with length, generate significant hangtime when needed, directionally kick or even deaden the football inside the 20, a direct impact of the Australian Rules game that has produced so many talented players at the position.
When the opportunities to return kicks do come, however, it’s nice to have an explosive option to take advantage of the situation and Michael Clay just didn't have that in his first year as the Eagles' special teams coordinator.
The Eagles only returned 67 total kicks in the regular season during the 2021 season, 34 kicks, and 33 punts, an average of 3.94 per game.
Reagor, the embattled 2020 first-round pick, has failed to develop as a receiver or as a return specialist. With few options to turn to, though, he got most of the work, leading the team in both punt and kick returns while managing 7.3 yards on 31 punt returns (12th in the NFL) and 21.3 yards on 12 kickoff returns (15th).
The leaders were Baltimore Devin Duvernay at 13.8 yards per punt return and the New York Jets’ Braxton Berrios at 30.4 per kick return, highlighting the upside of a potential improvement.
To that end, the Eagles will be using one of their top-30 pre-draft visits on undersized Houston cornerback Marcus Jones, something first reported by the Pro Football Network and confirmed by SI.com’s Eagles Today.
At 5-foot-8 and just 184 pounds, Jones is a pure slot cornerback prospect with some playmaking skills who generated five interceptions during his senior season.
On the surface, the Eagles have one of the best inside CBs in the NFL in Avonte Maddox coming off a career year and a contract extension. Nick Sirianni also made it very clear that the team is extremely high on its young, largely unknowns at the position, particularly 2021 fourth-round pick Zech McPhearson, Tay Gowan, and Kary Vincent Jr.
While the lengthy Gowan is a natural outside option due to his length at 6-foot-1, both McPhearson and Vincent are best-suited in the slot, along with Josiah Scott, although the hope is the former can develop the versatility to handle the inside and outside on Jonathan Gannon’s defense.
The larger point to this is that the Eagles aren’t desperate for another young slot option on defense but when that potential brings with it game-breaking return ability that’s the kind of versatility that can open eyes.
Jones, who started his college career at Troy before transferring to Houston finished his college career with a 28.4 average on 73 kickoff returns with six touchdowns, a score every 12.2 times he brought one back. On punts he added three more scores on 63 returns, compiling a 14.0 average.
Jones was so explosive with the football in his hands, he even got 19 offensive touches in college, generating 146 yards and another TD.
The Eagles are almost surely looking at Jones first and foremost as a return option and need to do some further due diligence on an older prospect (he's 24) who's been through a couple of shoulder surgeries.
In a larger sense, though, the visit is a clear indication that the Eagles will be attempting to upgrade the return game, likely on Day 3 of the draft later this month.
-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
