The Eagles on Thursday acquired former first-round pick Jahan Dotson in a trade with the Washington Commanders.
They finally have their third receiver.
In the trade, the Eagles get Dotson and a fifth-round pick in 2025 and give up a third-round pick and two seventh-round picks in the 2025 draft.
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Dotson, 24, was the 16th overall pick in the 2022 draft out of Penn State. Dotson (5-11, 182) has played in 29 games with 26 starts over the last two years with the Commanders. As a rookie in 2022, the Nazareth High School product had 35 catches for 523 yards and 7 touchdowns. In 2023, he had 49/518/4.
But the Commanders have a new coaching staff in 2024, and Dotson had seemingly fallen out of favor. The Eagles get Dotson with two years under contract and three years of team control.
With the Eagles, Dotson clearly slots into the WR3 role behind A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. That third wide receiver was a position in question all training camp and none of the candidates truly separated themselves.
Even entering training camp, it was clear the Eagles would look at adding another receiver.
Philadelphia Eagles
“Yeah, really excited to get out here and see the candidates we have,” general manager Howie Roseman said before the first practice of the summer. “We brought in guys that we think have talent and the ability to contribute for us, but to sit here and say like that's not something we're going to be watching every day and seeing who steps up and how the chemistry is with Jalen (Hurts), it's important.
“You know, I think that you look at it throughout the league, that position is an important position. We brought in guys in free agency, drafted a couple guys. I think it's something that we're going to be watching among other things daily and see who steps up.”
Throughout the 16 practices of training camp, the Eagles used Parris Campbell, John Ross, Johnny Wilson and Britain Covey in that WR3 role. Despite some good moments from all of them, the addition of Dotson is clearly an upgrade and solidifies one of the only weak spots on an offense that has the potential to be elite.
In Kellen Moore’s offense, the Eagles are expected to move their receivers around quite a bit. During training camp, we saw Smith take a bunch of reps in the slot. Dotson has played both outside and in the slot over his two NFL seasons, which seems important in this offense.
Here’s a breakdown of Dotson’s snaps in his NFL career, via ProFootballFocus:
Slot: 537 snaps (34.4%)
Wide: 1,023 snaps (65.5%)
Coming out of Penn State in 2022, Dotson ran an impressive 4.43 in the 40-yard dash at the Combine. And in his senior season at Penn State, Dotson caught 91 passes for 1,182 yards and 12 touchdowns.
Here’s a look at the Eagles’ projected offense in 2024:
QB: Jalen Hurts
RB: Saquon Barkley
WR: A.J. Brown
WR: DeVonta Smith
WR: Jahan Dotson
TE: Dallas Goedert
LT: Jordan Mailata
LG: Landon Dickerson
C: Cam Jurgens
RG: Mekhi Becton
RT: Lane Johnson
On paper, that’s a really impressive group. Roseman has done his job. Now, it’s up to the coaching staff and players to make it work in 2024.
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