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Philadelphia Eagles’ Rookie Nelson Agholor Has A Lot Of Work To Do

By Ryan Quigley

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Philadelphia Eagles rookie Nelson Agholor is oozing with talent, but still has a ton of work to do to become a success in the NFL.

Nelson Agholor finally showed up for the Philadelphia Eagles Sunday against the Buffalo Bills. After being MIA for much of the season, Agholor was able to explode for his very first NFL touchdown, a 53-yard score as the Eagles defeated the Bills 23-20 in LeSean McCoy‘s return to the City of Brotherly Love. If you really wanted to, I suppose you could consider this Agholor’s “breakout” game.

But aside from the big play, Agholor only had two other receptions that combined for only nine yards alongside a pair of ugly drops. Not exactly an eye-popping performance. Agholor may have finally scored his first touchdown, but he still has a ton of work to do.

The Eagles drafted Agholor with their first round pick in the 2015 NFL Draft with the intention of having him fill the void left by Jeremy Maclin after he joined the Kansas City Chiefs in free agency. So far, he hasn’t come anywhere close to even smelling the kind of production Maclin was able to have with Philadelphia.

Agholor was considered a Maclin clone coming out of USC. Their measurables are staggeringly similar and their skill sets aren’t too far apart either, but unlike Maclin, Agholor has completely failed to make any inkling of an impact for Philadelphia as a rookie. In ten games this season, Agholor has only been able to record 19 receptions for 225 yards.

A first-round pick should be doing far more than that.

Obviously, not every player steps in as a rookie and immediately performs like Jerry Rice. Seeing youngsters such as Odell Beckham, Sammy Watkins and Mike Evans play as well as they did as first-year players is a rarity and that only happens every so often, so it is completely unreasonable to expect the same from Agholor.

But the frustrating thing about Agholor is that he has the talent to perform at a high level. He just isn’t doing it. Football is a mental game and it’s pretty clear that Agholor doesn’t have that aspect of it completely figured out yet.

In Agholor’s NFL debut in a preseason game against the Indianapolis Colts, I believe this play may have added some unwarranted hype to his game.

If you watch Colts cornerback Greg Toler on the play, it’s pretty obvious that he bit on the throw and was expecting to contend for an interception. By the time Agholor brought in the ball, it was too late for Toler to react and take down Agholor for a minimal gain (which any other average cornerback would have been able to do, but it’s Greg Toler, so it didn’t happen). After that, it was off to the races for Agholor.

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At first glance, it looks like Agholor made an incredible circus catch and proceeded to burn the entire Colts defense with his blazing speed (even though he is really fast). But, truthfully, this play was created because of a bad gaff by the defense, not Agholor himself.

Sorry not sorry.

After that game, fans were expecting Agholor to become the Eagles’ next big superstar, which simply isn’t a fair expectation of a rookie wideout. Agholor knows he must improve and there is no reason to believe that he won’t get those kinks figured out. He has the talent. Now, he just needs to learn how to use it effectively.

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