Philadelphia Eagles: Was waiving DeAndre Carter the right move?

The Philadelphia Eagles waived DeAndre Carter on Tuesday. Did they make the right move by doing so?

This season has been stressful not only for Philadelphia Eagles fans but for select players as well. This is normal around the league, where guys are always on the move. One day, they are on the active roster, and the next day they are flying out to another city to play on a teams practice squad for a few weeks, then it’s back to the same process.

The Eagles have their usual suspects for that. One of those guys being the wide receiver, and return specialist, DeAndre Carter. As of Tuesday, Carter is no longer on the team as they waived him since Darren Sproles is ready to go. Carter didn’t issue much value to the offense, but he did a nice job in the return game for most of the first half of the season.

As of week ten, Carter is considered to be a top-ten punt returner when it comes to average yards-per-return. Oh, and it’s significant to add that he has fewer returns than everybody in front of him, considering that it took a few weeks for the Eagles to utilize him. In all honesty, Carter earned his role as the punt returner, and the Eagles are wrong for kicking him to the curb for Sproles.

What have you done for me lately?

Darren Sproles will go down as one of the best return specialists the league has ever seen, no doubt. But at 35-years-old, he’s just not the same returner. For the Eagles, Sproles hasn’t been able to contribute to more than four games in the last two seasons. And before his unfortunate season-ending injury in 2017, Sproles didn’t even finish within the top-ten in punt returns.

He’s regressed in that department, and there’s no other way around it. But aside from the statistics, can we really trust Sproles enough to just risk kicking a return man to the curb like this? Hamstring injuries are no joke. More often than not, they are reoccurring, and we’ve witnessed it first-hand with Sproles this season as he hasn’t played in a game since week one.

What happens if Sproles goes down again, and Carter is no longer available? Is Corey Clement going to return the ball? Let’s just remember that Clement is prone to fumbling when it comes to snagging punts out of the air. Nelson Agholor? When was the last time he did that? We can say Golden Tate, but there’s no way the Eagles risk losing him to an injury on punt returns.

The loyalty to Sproles is understandable, but the Eagles continue to reward veterans for nothing other than sentimental purposes. Typically, if an injury prone veteran gets injured and a young guy does better than he has lately at his position, the young guy keeps the job. See Jake Elliott and Caleb Sturgis from last year. DeAndre Carter earned the return man role, and the Eagles did him wrong.