Can a one-time top-10 draft pick wide receiver help while DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown are out?

Story of his career.

Whenever things start going well, disaster strikes.

Happened again this summer to John Ross.

The one-time 1^st-round pick spent the first few weeks of training camp knocking off the rust. But as camp went along, he started showing up. Only to suffer a concussion in the preseason game against the Patriots in Foxboro.

“I was starting to come along,” he said. “I was feeling good. I had a really good joint practice vs. New England. Things were looking up and then the concussion happened.”

Ross caught a nine-yard pass from Kenny Pickett and had kick returns of 32 and 36 yards that night at Gilette Stadium before suffering a concussion early in the third quarter. That pretty much sealed his fate, and he was released with final cuts two weeks later.

“Just a little setback,” he said at his locker Wednesday. “Those things happen all the time. I mean at this point in my career I look at it as just another hurdle. It's tough to keep on getting down on myself about it. It's just a lot of stuff that I can't control throughout my whole career. A lot of injuries. Freak things happen. That was my first time in-game having a concussion, something that I obviously can't control.”

Ross, the ninth pick in the 2017 draft, hasn’t played since Dec. 12, 2021, for the Giants against the Chargers. He caught a seven-yard pass from Mike Glennon and hasn’t been on an NFL field since.

But he can’t give up. Even though he’s been tempted.

“It's kind of hard for me to sit back and just wait for multiple weeks,” he said. “It's hard to stay optimistic. Because you never know. This is a tough league and a tough business.

“To get a call right away (after he was released), it was kind of unrealistic. I knew the situation and I knew the circumstances, so I wasn't really down about it. This is one of those deals where I had to wait, but I never gave up.”

After the Eagles cut him, Ross went home to California, spent some time with his son Kyrie and waited for the phone to ring.

It finally did.

The Eagles had initially signed Ross in late May, so he was here for OTAs and all of training camp, and when DeVonta Smith and Britain Covey joined A.J. Brown on the Eagles’ wide receiver injury list, the Eagles invited him back.

And why not?

He knows the offense, he has chemistry with Jalen Hurts and he can still fly. 

Ross signed to the Eagles’ practice squad on Tuesday and has been back practicing this week with this makeshift group of receivers – rookie 6^th-round pick Johnny Wilson, August acquisition Jahan Dotson and fellow practice squadder Parris Campbell.

Ross has 62 career catches for 957 yards and 11 touchdowns in parts of five seasons with the Bengals and Giants. He has four career catches of at least 50 yards, and 16 of his 62 catches have gone for at least 20 yards.

Assuming Brown is out for the Bucs Sunday, Ross may get a chance to play for the first time since late in the 2021 season.

“I feel like I'm in a better spot than someone else that would just come in and hadn’t been here (all summer),” Ross said. “I stayed in shape and I feel good mentally and I think that's the best part. 

“It’s going to be hard to make up that time I missed with Jalen and the other quarterbacks and things like that, but it's just one of those deals where I’ve got to just lock in and go out there with my best foot forward and keep working.”

Ross is the longest of long shots.

He still has that world-class speed, but he’s had one game with more than 30 yards since 2019. Can he help this team after not even being in the league for the last month?

“I missed it, man,” Ross said. “You don't really know how much you miss it until you’re gone. But it definitely feels good to finally be back. The way I feel mentally and physically, I feel like if my number is called, I'll be ready.”

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