Philadelphia Eagles: Only special teams can save Mack Hollins

As he continues to battle through injuries, could Philadelphia Eagles wideout Mack Hollins be on the roster bubble?

Injuries are wildly unfortunate in the NFL. When it comes to the Philadelphia Eagles, they have strangely been one of the most injured teams over the last couple of years. While they were relatively healthy at the start of training camp, that is slowly starting not to be the case. Some guys are still recovering from last year’s mess, while others are dealing with something new.

One player, in particular that has been one giant mystery over the last year is third-year wide receiver, Mack Hollins. As he underwent surgery during the offseason last year, Hollins wasn’t able to participate in spring drills. However, he did return by the first week of the preseason, but after that, he disappeared once again. That time, it was for a new injury.

Nobody knew when Hollins would return, but many were shocked to find out he wasn’t going to play at all in 2018. Hoping that 2019 would be different, the Eagles are likely disappointed in Hollins’ inability to stay on the field in the offseason once again. During the spring, Hollins was hardly practicing, but by the time minicamp rolled around, he was able to get some work in.

Hollins would report for training camp last week, but he wouldn’t last long in practice. Once again, Hollins is sidelined for an injury — and this time it doesn’t have anything to do with his sports hernia or his groin. Instead, he’s dealing with a hip injury that has had him sidelined for almost a week now. And according to the Eagles’ practice injury report he’s still considered day-to-day.

Could Hollins be on the roster bubble?

Hollins showed promise during his rookie season on the offense, but he wasn’t much of a contributor in terms of production. Letting go of Hollins wouldn’t be ideal for the Eagles, but cutting another camp prospect loose who might’ve earned a spot on the roster for an injury-riddled Hollins wouldn’t be a great scenario either.

At this point, the Eagles wideouts who are absolute locks to make the roster are DeSean Jackson, Nelson Agholor, Alshon Jeffery, and JJ Arcega-Whiteside. In the past, the Eagles have gone with six guys at the position, so Hollins could squeeze in there. However, there have been some guys exceeding expectations at wideout in Marken Michel, Carlton Agudosi, Greg Ward, and DeAndre Thompkins. Plus, there’s still Shelton Gibson on board as well.

While Hollins is almost as unproven on offense as the rest, he does have an upper-hand in the area where most of them don’t — that’s the special teams. If you can remember, Hollins served the Eagles well on special teams in 2017 after Chris Maragos went down with his knee injury.

The Eagles typically like to ensure their depth receivers are reliable on special teams, and that’s where Hollins has always excelled. If that weren’t the case, we could probably go as far as saying Hollins may not survive the final cuts in September. However, special teams might be the only way Mack Hollins is locked onto the final roster at the end of camp — injury or not.