5 Eagles who have offered almost nothing to this team in 2021
54. . . . Aaron Moorehead, WR Coach. . player
Eagles wide receiver coach Aaron Moorehead
Say what you want about Mike Groh. He may have been a horrible offensive coordinator, but he was and is an excellent wide receivers coach. Look at how well his guys are performing in Indianapolis.
Never, during the Doug Pederson era, did Philadelphia’s wide receivers look better than they did when Groh was leading the unit. Nelson Agholor even looked like a star, but even though the other wide receivers coaches of Doug’s era left much to be desired, their inability to find a good one had nothing to do with a lack of effort.
Doug replaced Bob Bicknell with Greg Lewis in 2016, and from 2017 to Doug’s final season as Eagles head coach in 2020, there was a new wide receivers coach on staff at the beginning of every season: the aforementioned Groh in 2017, Gunter Brewer in 2018, Carson Walch in 2019, and Aaron Moorehead in 2020.
Moorehead survived the coaching change from Pederson to Nick Sirianni in 2021. The questions are about why he survived the coaching change. There’s no evidence of anyone getting better under his watch.
Look no further than two young receivers having touchdown receptions erased for illegal-touching penalties and two more touchdowns being erased because of offensive pass interference penalties in just eight weeks of the current season. It’s okay for young players to make mistakes, but when the wide receivers aren’t learning and are making the same mistakes, coaching has to be called into question.
In 2020, Moorehead’s first as wide receivers coach, every Eagles wide receiver regressed, including the veterans. Fast forward, and Jalen Reagor, who has talent, has never shown that consistently.
JJ Arcega-Whiteside is a train wreck. DeVonta Smith hasn’t broken out yet (truthfully, he’s struggling). Greg Ward and John Hightower seem to have taken steps backward. All of that is Moorehead’s fault.
Sure, you can point to Quez Watkins as a success story, but that seems to be more about something Watkins is doing than anything Moorehead has done to teach him.