Eagles clearly dropped the ball by not promoting Greg Ward sooner

When looking at the wide receiver situation for the Philadelphia Eagles, why didn’t the team promote Greg Ward sooner?

After previous stints with the team that started all the way back in 2017, the Philadelphia Eagles recently promoted Greg Ward back to the active roster for the second time in 2019 towards the end of November to help fill their need at wide receiver.

From DeSean Jackson dealing with an unexpected injury that limited the veteran to basically playing just one game to players like Mack Hollins and Jordan Matthews failing to step up when given the opportunities, the Eagles have been hurting big time at wide receiver this season.

So when Philadelphia made the decision to promote Ward to the active roster before the team’s Week 12 meeting with the Seattle Seahawks, this wasn’t viewed as a sign of desperation, but more so the Eagles realizing they had nothing to lose in giving the wideout a chance.

Turns out, unlike Hollins or Matthews in previous weeks, Ward was able to make an immediate impact in the passing game for Philadelphia by catching six of seven passes thrown in his direction for 40 yards.

One week later, Ward only caught one pass for five yards, but also keep in mind that with Alshon Jeffery and Nelson Agholor returning to action from injuries, it was more difficult to see a higher amount of targets.

Still, when seeing how much of an effort Ward has been making in each of the previous two weeks to take advantage of the opportunity to Philadelphia he was worthy of a roster spot, it’s tough not to wonder why this kind of move didn’t take place a long time ago.

When taking into consideration that Ward was just hanging out on the practice squad while other receivers like Hollins and Matthews were struggling to make an impact in the passing game just adds to the list of frustrations surrounding the Eagles’ offense in 2019.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that Ward’s presence would have fixed all the issues Philadelphia has been dealing with on offense, but it’s only taken two weeks to determine he seems like a much better option over his former teammates.

Since there’s no way to determine how different things would have been on offense if the Eagles kept Ward around longer after originally promoting him to the roster for Week 3 before going back to the practice squad, fans can only wonder what could have been at wide receiver.

On a positive note, at least with Hollins and Matthews both officially out of the picture with four games remaining, Ward will at least be in better position to make a case for himself beyond the 2019 season.

Ward may seem like a long shot at the moment to have a significant role once 2020 rolls around, but one of the best things about the NFL is how anything is possible, meaning all possibilities should be considered for the Eagles.