By Tim Kelly, Sports Talk Philly editor 
A year after housing the league's worst receiving corps, the Philadelphia Eagles revamped core, which features Alshon Jeffery, Torrey Smith and a suddenly confident Nelson Agholor, flashed potential in the team's 30-17 Week 1 win over the Washington Redskins.
Here are three takeways on the receiving corps after the first week of the season:
- Nelson Agholor balled out
The face at the top of this article is full of emotion that's been bottled up two years in the making for Nelson Agholor.
After Agholor disappointed in his first season, the former first-round pick seemingly hit rock-bottom last year, looking mentally shattered at points in the season. Doug Pederson even benched him for the team's Week 12 loss to the Green Bay Packers, a week after former wide receivers coach Greg Lewis seemed perplexed (to put it nicely) with Agholor on the sideline.
But with a new number, and what's reportedly been a strong offseason, Agholor stole the show in the team's Week 1 win.
Agholor had six catches for 86 yards, including a 58-yard touchdown reception after Carson Wentz did an incredible job extending the play. While Wentz helped Agholor there, he probably held Agholor back from having over 100 yards in the game.
Agholor probably would have had a touchdown if Wentz hit him in stride on a swing route on the team's fourth drive (pictured below). Agholor did make the catch, but it was one of numerous instances in the game that Wentz underthrew or missed the 24-year-old.
Regardless of the fact that Wentz may have left some opportunities on the board for Agholor to have an even better game, he was the team's most effective offense weapon Sunday afternoon and looked confident. Those are very welcome signs.
2. Alshon Jeffery may be the perfect weapon for Carson Wentz
When Jay Cutler and the Miami Dolphins held joint practices with the Eagles last month, the former Chicago Bears quarterback had some pretty simple advice for Carson Wentz about his former teammate Alshon Jeffery:
"You just throw it," Cutler said. "You just throw it out there and he'll make it right."
It appears that Wentz accepted that advice.
At the very least, Wentz has some gunslinger in him. That makes a receiver like Jeffery, who is so physically dominant that he can clean up less-than-stellar passes, often in double coverage, a perfect weapon for someone like Wentz.
Though Jeffery wasn't targeted until the fifth series of the game and ended up with just three catches, Wentz took two chances to the new-Eagle that he probably wouldn't have to any other receiver.
Just prior to the end of the first half, Wentz took a shot to the endzone that probably would have been intercepted had Jeffery not been there to break the pass up:
I would argue that given the circumstances above, when the Eagles were in field goal range and down just before halftime, Wentz shouldn't have taken that chance. But the counterargument is that Jeffery was able to break it up and if Wentz had put a little more on this throw, it may have ended with Jeffery catching his first touchdown as an Eagle.
With that said, there's times where it makes sense for Wentz to bet on Jeffery's athleticism.
Take, for example, the play below when Wentz threw to Jeffery, despite him being double covered. The Eagles were up 19-17 at the end of the third quarter and in a third-and-21 situation on their own 39. The Eagles probably weren't going to get a first down on any other play, so taking the chance the Jeffery comes down with this, which he nearly did, made sense. If it's intercepted, then it essentially amounts to a punt.
3. Torrey Smith looks like he's going to be a nice complimentary piece
For those of you already sick of the Josh Norman Samsung ad (and Norman in general, for that matter), Smith cooking the Redskins cornerback on this play was encouraging:
Carson Wentz leaves a touchdown on the field by underthrowing Torrey Smith pic.twitter.com/Fb9oRt8Psg
— Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) September 11, 2017
Of course, it would have been even more encouraging if Wentz connected with Smith on this play, but that's perhaps indicative of why I wrote that he was "inconsistently impressive" in his first game of the season.
Earlier in the quarter, Wentz hit Smith on a third-and-long, which he then took an extra 17 yards for what was a 30-yard gain.
That 30-yard gain was Smith's only catch of the game, but had Wentz hit him in-stride on the above play, his receiving yards would have looked quite different.
While there may be games where Smith his held to just one or two catches, you get the sense that his elite speed may be able to swing a game or two this season, which may be the difference between the Eagles making or missing the playoffs.
