How about the rest of the Philadelphia Eagles’ young receivers?
John Hightower hasn’t been perfect, but he’s already shown flashes of his potential. Despite being exposed a bit in Week 1, overall he has been solid. Keep in mind that this guy is a fifth-round rookie who is being expected to perform at a high level in the first five weeks of his career with a shortened offseason. His failures have been more noticeable than his successes but he’s still made progress in the first five weeks. The film is a clear indicator of his skill. He’s an impressive route runner and already does a good job recognizing defensive coverages.
On the first deep ball versus the Pittsburgh Steelers, Hightower stumbled out of his break and Wentz got hit as he threw with threw off the timing. Hightower dove for it but came up short. Later in the game, Hightower didn’t track the ball well enough and had a touchdown go right through the breadbasket. He also didn’t get out of bounds on the last drive of the first half. Ball tracking and situational awareness are rookie mistakes that need to and will get cleaned up. Don’t be surprised if we see a much different John Hightower by Week 17.
While it would be unfair to say Greg Ward’s success is a result of Aaron Moorehead, Ward has continued to develop into a reliable slot receiver for this team making big catches when they are needed the most. J.J. Arcega-Whiteside has continued to struggle but at this point, it’s hard to believe any wide receivers coach can fix his struggles. At the least, Moorehead was able to get ‘JJAW’ to catch a nice 37-yard pass although it didn’t matter since the clock ran out.