Eagles Receiver Gaining Traction In Quest To Be No. 3, Earning Jalen Hurts' Trust

Now in his third season, he is hoping for more of a role on the offense, and so far is having a solid training camp.

Eagles receiver/punt returner Britain Covey takes the field for a training camp practice. / Ed Kracz/Eagles on SI

PHILADELPHIA – If this receiver thing doesn’t work out for Britain Covey, at least he has something to tell his children someday when they are grown.

“People asked me (why) I haven’t gotten many chances at receiver but one day I’ll tell my kids I was DeVonta Smith’s backup and I’m pretty proud of that,” he said following Tuesday morning’s Eagles practice. “Hopefully we get some chances this year though.”

Jalen Hurts tried to get him that chance last year, telling coaches that Covey was tearing it up on scout team, so why not give him that opportunity? Those pleas fell on deaf ears.

Hurts again is expressing confidence in Covey.

“The big thing for me is just building trust with Jalen,” said Covey. “Jalen’s come up to me and told me he trusts me. And that’s the biggest compliment you can get from your quarterback.”

Covey looks like a real threat to be the No. 3 receiver, though John Ross, Parris Campbell, and others are making it difficult for him.

At least head coach Nick Sirianni seems to be noticing Covey more as a receiver and not just a punt returner.

“Britian Covey has had a nice camp thus far,” said Sirianni. “He's got some great quickness, and you can see how he is with the ball in his hands. You get to see that every Sunday, and you got to see that the last two years every Sunday with the way he is with the ball in his hands.”

Eagles Britain Covey / Ed Kracz/Eagles on SI

Sirianni rattled off something good about the other nine receivers vying to be No. 3, so as athletes like to say, “It is what it is.”

Covey is good at creating separation, maybe the second-best receiver on the roster to do that behind Smith. He also has a good understanding of what being the third receiver on this team means.

“If you think about this offense, we’ve got A.J. (Brown), Smitty, Dallas (Goedert), and Saquon (Barkley), so your third receiver that’s out there needs to be able to affect the game in ways other than just being ball-centric because there’s only so many footballs to go around, so I think that’s why a lot of times in the past we’ve had Quez (Watkins) out there because he affects the game with his speed," he said.

“Parris and John affect the game with their speed. I feel my route running and my ability with the ball is something similar. You can’t leave me. You have to be a threat in some way without needing the ball in your hand. When you have that good of players as your ball-centric guys you have to have the other guys affect the game in some way. For me, I really focused on that in the offseason.”

Something else Covey did was watch a lot of film on former NFL receiver Cole Beasley, who carved out a steady 12 years in the league at 5-8, 174. It’s the size of Beasley that the 5-8, 173-pound Covey can relate to. Also, because Beasley played in a Kellen Moore offense while the offensive coordinator was in Dallas with him.

But it’s Smith and Brown, especially Smith since his body type in terms of weight is similar to Covey’s, that Covey has learned from the most.

“Obviously any time you can learn from DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown you are just like a fly on the wall, everything they do, everything they say,” he said. “Especially DeVonta for my body type. Just learning from him. I feel like I’ve learned more in my first month or two here than I did in my whole college career just from watching.”

Will it be enough to let him see the field with the offense? The rest of summer should tell the story.

"I’m not a young guy in the league anymore," he said. "I’m in Year 3, like this is the time I should be contributing wherever I can."

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