In the offseason, we will take a look at some new players who are not the Philadelphia Eagles, or players who have already joined the team, but we may not know much about them. Today we take a look at Quez Watkins, the 2020 sixth-round draft pick.

Previous “Eagles Player Reviews” breakdowns

Jalen Hurts • Joe Flacco • Arryn Siposs • Jack Driscoll • Jordan Mailata • Marcus Epps

After a good training camp, Watkins’s season started slowly as he landed on the injured reserve team. He stayed there for the first four weeks, and when he came back, he had only played 20 fast breaks in two games, and then disappeared (mostly on the weekly inactive list) until the season’s The last quarter. Snapshot of his 2020 season snapshot:

Watkins didn’t see the target appear until the 14th week against the Saints, and even that “target” was essentially a handover of jet fire. It wasn’t until the 15th week that Watkins had an unforgettable moment when he caught a screen pass, rotated it outside, and took it home.

In this season, Watkins has 7 catches and officially hit 13 goals for 106 yards (15.1 YPC) and 1 TD (actually Greg Ward’s incomplete). In the tank game, on the controversial 4th down hit, the football team’s 4 yard line he also entered the end zone, but Jalen Hurts threw an incorrect pass. Here are all of Watkins’ goals for the 2020 season:

As you can see in this video, Watkins’ touch to the ground was an eye-opener, and his speed impressed Aqib Talib (the game’s commentator) even though most of his catch (and Targets) are played on the screen or not in the schedule. I do like the route he ran on the penultimate goal of the season in the video above, in which he took intermittent steps at the beginning of the route, went straight along Kendall Fuller, and then stopped. The route and got opened. Nate Sudfeld’s throw failed, and the latter glanced at Watkins’ fingertips.

I looked at all the snapshots of Watkins against the Cardinals and the football team (the most games he played in) and came to the following conclusions:

• In 2020, Watkins has played some balls in X, Z and slot machines, but most of them are in the Z corner. In the new offensive plan, Nick Sirianni believes that the Hawks receiver will play every position, although Watkins is the best fit for this position.

• In the absence of coverage, he will quickly eat the mat, and as a depth receiver, or after selling the depth route, whether it is in or out of the route, may be a real threat. The Eagles have four receivers on Watkins, Devonta Smith, Jalen Rigg and John Gauthal, which have reasonable speed and deep ball potential. Theoretically, the Eagles should be able to generate 2-in-1 scenes for the area coverage deep in the area at this speed. Determine whether Sirianni can release this potential within his offensive range.

• Against the press, if Watkins can be reached around the corner, it will slow him down and affect his travel time. He needs to completely defeat corner kicks at the press conference because he did not show the ability to match the body of offensive corner kicks. His field of competition will need improvement. He should not be required to assume the X position soon.

• As an obstacle, his efforts are very good, but the corners are still easy to get rid of his obstacles.

Overview

Watkins has a speed of 4.35 and he will have many opportunities to enter the roster. He showed some real juice to the Cardinals last season and can benefit from an offensive plan that can pass the ball into his hands and have the opportunity to create opportunities after receiving the ball. In theory, his speed should also make him a far-reaching threat, but Watkins did not achieve any goals on the vertical route in 2020, except in an irregular game against Dallas. Considering that Hightower gets a lot of shots on the court, this feels strange.

Another noteworthy fact is that Watkins participated in zero special team battles in 2020, so his spot in 2021 cannot be guaranteed. He will have to build the roster by becoming better than the other young recipients on the roster. His biggest game in the camp may be Hightower. He has similar skills and has not participated in a special game at all in 2020.