By Tucker Bagley, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 
It has become the most-maligned unit on the Eagles roster. Due to poor drafting and decisions during free agency, the Eagles are virtually bare at wide receiver with only a few players even showing enough promise to warrant an opportunity in 2017.
Howie Roseman and company really have their work cut out for them in the offseason and the Eagles brass will be rather aggressive in making sure that Carson Wentz has enough weapons on the outside in his sophomore campaign.
Who's Here?
The Eagles finished 2016 with five wide receivers on their roster: Nelson Agholor, Dorial Green-Beckham, Jordan Matthews, Paul Turner and Bryce Treggs. Marcus Johnson and David Watford have been added from the practice squad, while Rasheed Bailey and Dom Williams have been signed to futures contracts.
Who Stays?
The only true locks in this unit are Matthews and Agholor. Matthews has been solid through the first three years of his NFL career and has proven to be a decent contributor. He still struggles with drops and is a bit inconsistent, but he isn't a guy who can carry an offense. In a perfect world, the Eagles will be able to take the spotlight off of Matthews and give him more space to operate.
Agholor will be here simply because of his contract. As a first-round draft choice, the Eagles will have to eat a lot of dead money if they want to move on from Agholor in 2017. Similar to Marcus Smith's situation last season, Agholor will be here as long as he proves to be one of the top 53 men in training camp.
Who Goes?
With such a youthful group, it's hard to imagine any of these guys not getting a fair shake during training camp, but I wouldn't be surprised if Williams or Bailey end up on the street in order to keep the roster at 90 during OTAs and the early parts of training camp. Treggs and Turner could be decent guys, but their upside is extremely limited.
One guy who really needs to prove his worth is Green-Beckham. His arrival excited the entire city last August, but he played a rather uninspired brand of football in 2016 and will need to show the coaching staff he is willing to work on his game. A physical specimen, Green-Beckham proved to be a tough guy to bring down after the catch, but his route-running is poor, his hands are below-average and undersized, and he rarely fights for the ball in the air. In fact, outside of his height and weight, Green Beckham really doesn't measure favorably against other wide receivers.
With the team expected to make a lot of moves in the draft and free agency, a lot of turnover should be expected, but it's hard to separate all of the practice squad guys in January.
Who's Available?
Between now and the beginning of the 2017 league calendar, there will be a lot of names connected to the Eagles. DeSean Jackson has already been connected to the Birds since the middle of the season and a reunion would make sense, seeing as he remains the top deep threat in the NFL. The Alshon Jeffery train has seemed to pick up a bit of steam since the Eagles hired his former wide receivers coach over the weekend. Kenny Stills is another young guy who looks like he could be a top wide receiver in the right offense.
As far as the draft is concerned, it wouldn't be too shocking to see the Birds go after a wide receiver in the first round, especially if the right one fell to them at 14 or 15. Clemson's Mike Williams has already been connected to the team in a number of mock drafts, but it's hard to believe a player of his caliber will fall to the middle of the first round. Someone is bound to fall in love with the kid during the pre-draft process and make a move to nab him in the Top-10.
Corey Davis may seem like a more realistic option in the first round. The Western Michigan product tallied 1,500 yards and 19 touchdowns in 2016 and could be a nice compliment to a big-play guy such as Jackson or Jeffery. Another guy the Birds could look at is Washington's John Ross who proved to be a tremendous deep threat in his college career. The Eagles current spot may be a bit high for him, but if Roseman doesn't like what's on his board at 14 or 15 and can orchestrate a trade back into the 20s, Ross would certainly be in play.
