Eagles Wake-Up Call: On Matthews’ Role in 2015

During his first practices as a rookie, Jordan Matthews made a habit of finding the end zone.

Whenever he caught the ball, he would take off in a sprint towards the goal line before eventually returning to the line of scrimmage. Chip Kelly was asked last week about Matthews’ routine.

“In football, the play ends on a whistle,” Kelly said. “So when the whistle blows, stop running. That was the conversation.”

When the regular season started, Matthews had no problem finding the end zone, scoring eight touchdowns as a rookie.

Raymond Summerlin of Rotoworld recently put together a piece on red zone production. He found that Matthews scored on 38 percent of his red zone targets, ranking 16th among all wide receivers and ninth among those who were targeted 10 times or more.

From Summerlin:

As a 6-3, 212-pound wide receiver with good ball skills, it is not surprising Jordan Matthews was successful in the red zone his rookie year. He scored on 38% of his red-zone looks and scored six of his eight touchdowns in the red zone last season. That is not too far above expectations for a player of Matthews’ size and abilities.

The surprising part of Matthews’ success was the lack of looks inside the 10-yard line. Only two of Matthews 16 red-zone targets and none of his touchdowns came from inside the 10. Mike Evans, another rookie with similar success inside the red-zone, scored four of his six red-zone touchdowns from inside the 10. Without those very close looks, Matthews’ effectiveness in the scoring area is even more impressive.

Keep in mind the Eagles were not a good red zone offense in 2014. They scored 4.56 points per red zone trip, which ranked 20th according to Football Outsiders.

There’s been plenty of discussion about Matthews’ role in 2015. Will he bounce outside or stay in the slot where he made 64 of his 67 catches last year, per PFF?

In the spring practices open to the media, Matthews lined up mostly in the slot with Riley Cooper and Josh Huff on the outside. When the Eagles drafted Matthews in 2014, Kelly made it clear that he liked his size/speed combination in the slot. He also said he didn’t want to overload Matthews from a mental standpoint as a rookie.

In many ways, Matthews’ 2014 campaign has been undersold. He caught 67 balls for 872 yards. In the last 10 years, only seven rookie wide receivers have had 65+ catches, 850+ yards and at least eight touchdowns: Odell Beckham, Mike Evans, Keenan Allen, Marques Colston, Kelvin Benjamin, Mike Williams and Matthews.

The Eagles are primarily an 11 personnel team (one RB, one TE, three WRs). Per PFF, Matthews played 65 percent of the snaps last year. The guess here is that the majority of his snaps will still be in the slot, but he’s going to see a significant bump in playing time, sometimes lining up outside and staying on the field in 2-WR sets.

Jeremy Maclin played 1,043 snaps last year (fifth-most among WRs), and Cooper played 980 (10th). Look for Matthews to get up to those numbers in 2015, and while Nelson Agholor figures to make an impact right away, Matthews is the favorite to lead the Eagles in receiving this season.

WHAT YOU MISSED

Three Eagles numbers that matter: On DeMarco Murray’s red zone production, the play-action passing game and a travel/sports science note.

“He moved faster than he had since I’ve been here.” The Eagles are still leaning on 33-year-old Jason Peters.

Don’t forget to order your Eagles Almanac if you haven’t done so already.

And finally, it’s NBA draft week. Be sure to check out our special Sixers Draftland section with Derek Bodner. Tons of good information over there to get you ready for Thursday.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

Tommy Lawlor of Iggles Blitz looks at the potential improvement of the Eagles’ defense:

The good news…this is the most talent that Bill Davis has had to work with. There are still some holes and some question marks, but this group has a good combination of size, skill, athleticism and experience. This will be the third season in the 3-4 for many of the players. They should be in a real comfort zone when it comes to this scheme.

I think there is better depth this year. There looks to be real competition at ILB and CB. That wasn’t the case in the past. The DL could turn out to be plenty deep if the young guys develop as expected.

When you think about the defense, Malcolm Jenkins might be the most important player. He is the only proven starter at S. He is the only returning starter in the secondary. If he goes down, things get very interesting in a hurry.

Interesting hypothetical here about Russell Wilson:

From a completely objective POV, it would be interesting to see how Russell Wilson would play for a different team

— Danny Kelly (@FieldGulls) June 23, 2015

@minakimes @FieldGulls @Cianaf Philly would be fun, and I could see Chip going all in on RW. But Kubiak’s O would fit too, similar to Wisc

— Chris B. Brown (@smartfootball) June 23, 2015

COMING UP

We’ll get you something.