By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor
There is no denying that Alshon Jeffery’s days with the Eagles appear to be numbered.
Many fans believe that he was the one that made anonymous comments about franchise quarterback Carson Wentz the last two seasons.
Not only that, but Jeffery’s production has trailed off since Super Bowl LII.
The team moving on from their star receiver would not be much of a surprise and The Athletic reports that the Eagles are shopping the receiver – and that Jeffery would welcome a change of scenery.
The path to this point has been an odd one for Jeffery, who joined the team in the 2017 offseason and had a monster year while playing through injury.
Jeffery’s 789 yards were huge, but his nine touchdowns were a big reason the Eagles managed to be such an efficient offense that season.
Jeffery was integral in the Eagles Super Bowl win with 73 yards and a touchdown, but he soon lost that feeling of being a Super Bowl Champion.
The team failed to advance to the NFC Championship game in 2018 due to Jeffery dropping a fourth-down conversion. Then they were eliminated in the wild card round in 2019 after a dirty hit by Jadeveon Clowney concussed Wentz so that the Seahwaks could barely squeak by 40-year-old Josh McCown and his receiving corps of practice squad promotions.
That time saw multiple instances of anonymous players complaining about Wentz and some of those comments would seem to have ties to what Alshon would say about his quarterbacks.
While Jeffery had said that he wanted to finish his career in Philadelphia just last July, that seems to have changed.
Jeffery was a disappointment in 2019 and is now owed $9,910,000 in 2020 while he is also suffering from an injury that may make him miss the beginning of the season, so a trade is no sure thing.
Jeffery currently carries a cap hit of about $15.5 million and that his would rise to $26 million if the team just cut him outright.
The Eagles choosing to send another team a pick to dump that salary also seems unlikely for the team.
The good news for the Eagles is that Alshon is a much more proven player than anyone on the free agent market other than Amari Cooper. The draft features plenty of receivers, however, should a team choose to go that route.
The Eagles will hope that someone is willing to take on Alshon’s contract so that they have additional cap space and can focus on rebuilding their receiving corps for the 2020 season.