The Eagles spent the offseason loading up at wide receiver, but the picture still isn’t as clean as the names on the roster make it look.
Philadelphia added Dontayvion Wicks via trade, Hollywood Brown and Elijah Moore in free agency, and Makai Lemon in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft. DeVonta Smith and Darius Cooper are the only receivers back from last year’s roster, and on paper that gives the team plenty of variety. There’s size in the room, there’s speed in the room, and there’s no shortage of options.
The problem is figuring out which of those options are actually ready to matter in 2026.
Smith is the safest bet by a wide margin. He’s been a steady force for the Eagles over the last five years, piling up three 1,000-yard seasons in that stretch even while A.J.
Brown handled the WR1 role for four of those seasons. Beyond him, though, the rest of the group comes with far more uncertainty than the depth chart suggests.
Lemon has missed most of training camp with a hamstring injury, which has left him behind in his development. His preseason debut didn’t help matters either, and he’s the kind of player the Eagles will need to bring along patiently.
Wicks has been one of the better stories of camp, but there’s still a question hanging over his role. He has never been a standout with the Green Bay Packers, and for the most part he was a WR3 at best. Last year he was buried on the depth chart, so the leap to being a WR2 in this offense is far from a sure thing.
Brown, meanwhile, hasn’t exactly seized the moment. He was a major disappointment in training camp and spent most of it out of sync with Hurts. The Eagles still view him as a deep threat, but how often that translates into real involvement on offense is unclear.
Cooper has earned attention from fans after dominating training camp for the second straight season, but his actual role is still a mystery. He had only nine receptions last year, so there’s no guarantee his workload jumps in a meaningful way.
Moore has built chemistry with Hurts, but in a receiver room with six players, he looks like he may be near the bottom of the pecking order. His biggest impact could end up coming on special teams rather than offense.
So while the Eagles have assembled a receiver group with plenty of different skill sets, the early read is that depth may be thinner than it first appears. The talent is there. The certainty isn’t.
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