Philadelphia Eagles legend believes he has a cure for JJ Arcega-Whiteside
One Philadelphia Eagles legend believes he has the cure for JJAW’s ills.
It’s rare that everyone agrees on something, but one look around the Philadelphia Eagles fan base will tell you something as July transitions into August. If you’re looking for someone that’s opposed to Jason Avant rejoining the Eagles in a teaching capacity, you’re going to have a hard time coming up with something.
Every hump day, Eagles fans can expect two things from the “Birds”, some sort of post featuring Carson Wentz with the “WentzDay” hashtag and a “Wallpaper Wednesday” post. On the final Wednesday of our great country’s seventh month, they mixed in a little welcomed news via, not only the team’s social media accounts but also from the official team website as well.
As mentioned, Philly’s welcomed back Jason Avant via the Bill Walsh NFL Diversity Fellowship to assist new wide receivers coach Aaron Moorehead, and it appears that he’s really taken the responsibility of his new job seriously.
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Former Philadelphia Eagles legend Jason Avant appears on 94 WIP-FM’s Morning Show.
On the final Friday of July, Angelo Cataldi and the Morning Team welcomed Avant to their show on 94 WIP-FM, and it didn’t take long before second-round draft choice JJ Arcega-Whiteside‘s name was mentioned. Here’s a quote.
"The things I would suggest to JJ are we have to deal in route tech a bunch. When you are a bigger guy, you have to be efficient. JJ can run a bit. He’s not as slow as I was. He is in the high 4.4s. When you have a bigger body like that, you just have to be efficient, stopping that body is different. There are some things that I won’t get into specifically, but there are things like when it comes to stopping, there are some cheats to it and some angles. Understanding how to use your leverage and bump people off. Just like the fine-tuning aspects that he hasn’t done."
Coming out of the Stanford Cardinal program, “JJAW” drew a lot of comparisons to Alshon Jeffery based off of both skillset and his size. It was a comparison that Arcega-Whiteside enjoyed hearing. After all, he had idolized “17” while playing college ball.
The bad news is this. Arcega-Whiteside was only able to accumulate 169 receiving yards as a rookie, which caused the excitement surrounding him to dwindle a little.
Topping his rookie campaign only requires that he catch 11 passes and reach the end zone twice. If he listens to Moorehead and Avant, this should be a bounceback season in Year 2. Perhaps, Avant says it best.
"In college, he was faster than everyone. He was bigger than anyone, so he was permitted some advantages. In the pros, you have to be a little bit more technical when you are his body type. That’s my goal is to try to make all of these guys as technical as possible, so therefore, when they are getting open, they don’t have to rely on speed, which is going to create more separation. When you add that speed, it’s easy to establish."
It appears that we’re off to a good start with Avant the teacher. Obviously, it’s too early to tell, but if you’re a “Birds” fan, it’s easy to like what you see so far.