Jacksonville signed Christian Kirk and Zay Jones to nice free agent contracts, but I’m not confident those guys will post good numbers. When Doug Pederson was coaching in Philadelphia, after all, the wide receivers weren’t all that involved in the offense.
Pederson was the head coach in Philadelphia for five years, with three of those teams making the playoffs (and one winning the whole thing). Yet none of those teams had a wide receiver who finished with top-20 numbers. Only four had a wide receiver who even ranked in the top 40 at his position.
| PEDERSON'S RECEIVERS IN PHILADELPHIA | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Tgt | Rec | Yds | TD | PPR | Rk |
| 2017 | Alshon Jeffery | 120 | 57 | 789 | 9 | 195.9 | 21 |
| 2017 | Nelson Agholor | 95 | 62 | 768 | 8 | 193.5 | 23 |
| 2018 | Alshon Jeffery | 92 | 65 | 843 | 6 | 185.3 | 27 |
| 2018 | Nelson Agholor | 97 | 64 | 736 | 4 | 165.6 | 34 |
| 2016 | Jordan Matthews | 117 | 73 | 804 | 3 | 171.4 | 44 |
| 2020 | Greg Ward | 79 | 53 | 419 | 6 | 133.3 | 59 |
| 2019 | Alshon Jeffery | 73 | 43 | 490 | 4 | 122.2 | 60 |
| 2020 | Travis Fulgham | 67 | 38 | 539 | 4 | 115.9 | 66 |
| 2017 | Torrey Smith | 67 | 36 | 430 | 2 | 90.7 | 74 |
| 2019 | Nelson Agholor | 69 | 39 | 363 | 3 | 96.0 | 75 |
| 2016 | Nelson Agholor | 69 | 36 | 365 | 2 | 87.9 | 86 |
| 2016 | Dorial Green-Beckham | 74 | 36 | 392 | 2 | 87.2 | 87 |
| 2020 | Jalen Reagor | 54 | 31 | 396 | 1 | 87.2 | 91 |
| 2019 | Greg Ward | 40 | 28 | 254 | 1 | 59.9 | 101 |
| 2018 | Jordan Matthews | 28 | 20 | 300 | 2 | 62.0 | 105 |
| 2017 | Mack Hollins | 22 | 16 | 226 | 1 | 44.6 | 115 |
| 2020 | DeSean Jackson | 26 | 14 | 236 | 1 | 44.8 | 125 |
| 2019 | DeSean Jackson | 10 | 9 | 159 | 2 | 36.9 | 129 |
| 2019 | J.J. Arcega-Whiteside | 22 | 10 | 169 | 1 | 32.9 | 136 |
| 2016 | Paul Turner | 14 | 9 | 126 | 0 | 21.6 | 145 |
| 2020 | John Hightower | 29 | 10 | 167 | 0 | 28.8 | 147 |
| 2020 | Quez Watkins | 13 | 7 | 106 | 1 | 23.6 | 154 |
| 2020 | Alshon Jeffery | 13 | 6 | 115 | 1 | 23.5 | 155 |
| 2020 | J.J. Arcega-Whiteside | 8 | 4 | 85 | 0 | 20.5 | 160 |
| 2016 | Bryce Treggs | 12 | 3 | 80 | 0 | 11.7 | 164 |
| 2017 | Marcus Johnson | 8 | 5 | 45 | 0 | 9.5 | 168 |
| 2018 | Kamar Aiken | 7 | 6 | 53 | 0 | 11.3 | 169 |
| 2019 | Deontay Burnett | 4 | 2 | 48 | 0 | 6.8 | 176 |
| 2018 | Shelton Gibson | 3 | 1 | 48 | 0 | 5.8 | 180 |
| 2017 | Shelton Gibson | 3 | 2 | 11 | 0 | 3.1 | 187 |
| 2020 | Deontay Burnett | 4 | 3 | 19 | 0 | 4.9 | 200 |
Those are different teams and different years, of course. With the size of the contract the Jaguars gave Kirk, you would think they believe he’s going to be pretty good. He’s deal has been reported at $72 million for four years, and I think they’re on the hook for at least $39 million for the next two years (if they want to pull the plug early).
Kirk didn’t put up great numbers in Arizona. He’s never had a 1,000-yard season, and he’s never caught more than 6 TDs in a season. As things stand right now, I don’t think I’ll be thinking about him at all as one of the top 20 receivers on my board – probably more of a top-30 guy.
Zay Jones signed a three-year deal averaging $8 million – less than half as much. They’re probably thinking right now that he’ll be a starter, but let’s see how things play out when guys get to camp and start working out. Easy to see Jones becoming more of a rotational player or third guy.
—Ian Allan