An Agholor/Emmanuel Sanders Comparison


Photo By Jeff Fusco

Photo By Jeff Fusco

Former scout and current NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah joined Rob Ellis and Harry Mayes on 97.5 The Fanatic to offer his thoughts on the state of the Eagles heading into camp.

Nelson Agholor came up in the conversation. While Jeremiah might not be totally on board with the NFL exec that thinks Agholor is a number one receiver, he is high on the former USC wideout.

“I think he’s a big-time guy. Ideally to me he is a great number two, I don’t think in terms of the size and physicality that I would want in my number one guy, but I think he can be an outstanding number two,” he said. “There’s a lot of guys with his skill set that have been very, very successful. Emmanuel Sanders is who he reminds me of, and we’ve seen what he can do both in Pittsburgh and out in Denver. I think he’s outstanding. He’s very tough and he’s very instinctive and I think he’s one of these guys that we saw last year where all these rookies jumped right in, no adjustment period; I think he’s going to fall into that [category]. He’s going to jump right in and be ready to go.”

Sanders (5-11, 180) is a little smaller than Agholor (6-0, 198). They do have similar speed (Sanders ran a 4.40, Agholor a 4.42.).

Sanders caught 67 balls for 740 yards and six touchdowns in his final year in Pittsburgh. Those numbers jumped to 101 catches, 1,404 yards and nine touchdowns when paired with Peyton Manning last year.

There’s no Manning on this roster, of course, but Jeremiah thinks Sam Bradford can reach some pretty high heights if he’s able to stay upright.

“Sam Bradford might be the single-most intriguing player, the guy that I’m most looking forward to watching in training camp and into the season over anybody else in the league,” said Jeremiah. “I agree with a lot of people’s takes that this could be a Pro Bowl quarterback if he stays healthy in this system, no question. But can he stay healthy? That’s what we don’t know.”

Some of that will be determined by whether the offensive line, which lost both Evan Mathis and Todd Herremans, can limit the amount of hits the QB takes. Jeremiah gave this evaluation of Mathis when asked if the guard made a major miscalculation this offseason.

“It’s tough to tell. You don’t have all the information, I don’t have all the information, Does he have all these offers and he’s trying to be picky? Is he trying to see what pops and what injuries [occur] to see if that ups his value elsewhere? I don’t know what the thinking is there,” he said.

“I just know that I was [with the Eagles] when he was there,  and he’s a solid player, he’s a solid starting guard. The one problem I have with some of the statistical analysis that’s out there…I’m all in on some of the stuff they can produce for receivers and targets and drops and catch rate, all that kind of stuff. But I was always reticent to buy into any numbers you see on offensive linemen. Because when you’re in there studying a tape and you kind of know when you’re with a team what the assignments are and how it’s being carried out, I never quite thought that his reputation in that mathematical world quite gelled with what you saw inside league circles.”

Jeremiah weighs in on DeMarco Murray and more in the interview. Click here to listen.