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Philadelphia Eagles: Time for JJ Arcega-Whiteside and Mack Hollins to step up

By Justin Grasso

PHILADELPHIA, PA - AUGUST 22: J.J. Arcega-Whiteside #19 of the Philadelphia Eagles runs with the ball against Bennett Jackson #33 and Anthony Averett #34 of the Baltimore Ravens in the third quarter of the preseason game at Lincoln Financial Field on August 22, 2019 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - AUGUST 22: J.J. Arcega-Whiteside #19 of the Philadelphia Eagles runs with the ball against Bennett Jackson #33 and Anthony Averett #34 of the Baltimore Ravens in the third quarter of the preseason game at Lincoln Financial Field on August 22, 2019 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /
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The Philadelphia Eagles need JJ Arcega-Whiteside and Mack Hollins to step up early on this season.

We’ve been down this road before many times. Remember 2017 when the Philadelphia Eagles suffered injury after injury? The motto in Philly was always “Next Man Up.” In 2018, we didn’t utilize it as much because, for some reason, the vibe was off.

Going into this year though, Philly’s confidence was through the roof. Since Carson Wentz healthy, and DeSean Jackson was back in town, everybody anticipated another MVP-like season from No. 11 as he was getting the chance to lead the Eagles offense once again.

Here we are though, in week two gearing up for what is turning out to be another injury-plagued year for the Birds. During week two, the Eagles were without two of their three starting wide receivers in Alshon Jeffery and DeSean Jackson.

While everybody thought it was just a minor setback — it turns out the two veteran wideouts will actually miss some time moving forward. So far, there haven’t been any concrete details out there regarding Jeffery’s calf injury, but there’s speculation he could miss at least two weeks.

And as for DeSean Jackson, it has been confirmed that he’s dealing with an abdominal strain. For that, he will miss the next two weeks as well, according to ESPN’s Tim McManus.

Enter the Arcega-Whiteside era

Fortunately, the Eagles decided to draft high on a wideout this year with Stanford’s JJ Arcega-Whiteside. Although it was assumed that Whiteside would take a backseat for year one and mostly learn behind Alshon Jeffery, he suddenly has to step into a more prominent role.

That goes for former fourth-round pick Mack Hollins as well. The two wideouts played for a majority of the game this past Sunday night and neither went above and beyond. Hollins came third in receptions with five catches for 50 yards. Arcega-Whiteside, on the other hand, only reeled in a single catch for a whopping four yards.

Next. It’s time to activate Daeshon Hall on game day. dark

Clearly, Hollins is more game day ready than Arcega-Whiteside is but that doesn’t mean the Eagles will shy away from trying to utilize the Stanford product even more.

With defenders likely keeping their focus on Nelson Agholor and Zach Ertz, Arcega-Whiteside could have a decent opportunity to shine against Detroit for Week 3. He just needs to continue to build a chemistry with quarterback Carson Wentz.

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