Philadelphia Eagles roster talk: Mack Hollins versus Shelton Gibson

It’s going to be an interesting roster battle at wide receiver. Is there any chance of Mack Hollins or Shelton Gibosn making the roster?

90 men sit on the Philadelphia Eagles roster. Before they take the field on September 8th to face the Washington Redskins in a game that actually counts, they’ll need to slim that down to 53 men and a practice squad. Two of the younger veterans, Mack Hollins and Shelton Gibson, whether they realize this or not, may find themselves on the bubble at the end.

Might one or both of them make the roster? Might one or both of them find themselves on the outside looking in? This figures to be one of the narratives in a roster battle at wide receiver that should keep us all talking throughout training camp.

Let’s look at the tale of the tape.

Both of these Super Bowl champions joined the Eagles the year of their championship run in 2017. Philly took Hollins in Round 4 of that year’s draft at 118. They’d add Gibson a round later, 166th overall.

Philly and their fans fell in love with both quickly, but to this point, there’s been no fireworks show. Hollins, at six-foot-four and 221 pounds, represented a nice combination of size and speed that was on display during a nice catch and touchdown run in a preseason game, but his first regular season trip to the end zone as a rookie would have to wait until Week 7.

Year three of his NFL career is set to begin, and his stat line looks like this: 16 receptions, 226 receiving yards and that one touchdown. Unfortunately, he hasn’t had much of an opportunity to add to that stat line as he was placed on the team’s IR (injured reserve) on September 6th of 2018. To be honest, we haven’t seen much of him until he popped up at Philly’s most recent minicamp.

The word is he still isn’t totally healthy.

Gibson hasn’t fared much better. He was supposed to be the ‘burner’, but so far, it hasn’t worked out that way. He’s a little undersized at five-foot-eleven and 191 pounds, but he’s only notched a total of three career receptions that have totaled 59 yards. In both of his previous seasons, he’s looked uncomfortable in the Eagles’ offense.

The third training camp for both of these young Eagles will teach us a lot about how they’ve developed. Unfortunately, with Nelson Agholor, DeSean Jackson, Alshon Jeffery, and J.J. Arcega-Whiteside sitting towards the top of the depth chart, at this point, it’s easy to believe they’re the favorites to make the roster.

That puts both Gibson and Hollins in a battle with the likes of Carlton Agudosi, Charles Johnson, Greg Ward, DeAndre Thompkins, Devin Ross, Braxton Miller, and Marken Michel (whose been very impressive) for what may be two roster spots. You’d like to think, with their experience, that Hollins and Gibson would have the leg up on the younger guys, but there’s no guarantee that’s the truth.

Don’t be surprised if they’re on the bubble throughout camp and left off of the final 53-man roster.