The Philadelphia Eagles announced on Apr. 14 the acquisition of wide receiver Dontayvion Wicks from the Green Bay Packers, a move aimed at adding talent and building depth at the position for the upcoming season.
This development is part of an offseason strategy to provide the offensive coaching staff with more options and create favorable matchups. The team said strengthening its roster at wide receiver was a priority in recent months.
Eagles Executive Vice President and General Manager Howie Roseman said, “You see that Green Bay has had tremendous depth at the receiver position, he played well in our game (4 receptions, 38 yards on eight targets) and we had advanced scouted him and had looked at him through the years and, obviously, a really productive guy. But we’re also in a situation where you feel like you have inside knowledge about what the player is like to live with. Obviously, Ryan (Mahaffey, Run Game Coordinator/Tight Ends coach) had been with him as his position coach (in Green Bay), Sean (Mannion, offensive coordinator) had been with him on the offensive staff. You take away the risk of bringing in someone you don’t know when you have people who know him and who have worked with him.” Roseman added about Wicks: “You see his skill set. He is a physical, explosive player at the top of routes. He can play inside or out, so he is guy we had our eye on.”
Head Coach Nick Sirianni commented on Wicks’s abilities: “He’s able to separate at the top of the route, and I think his toughness really shows up on tape. Again, when you can create that type of separation, we obviously get really excited about that, really excited to add him to that room.”
The Eagles’ current group features veterans A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith alongside new additions Hollywood Brown, Elijah Moore, Danny Gray and Quez Watkins as well as young talents Darius Cooper and Johnny Wilson plus return specialist Britain Covey.
Roseman said increasing both quality and quantity among receivers was necessary: “When you look at our receiver room over the last couple of years we’ve probably been fortunate about the depth that we haven’t really had to dive into…that was one of priorities going into this offseason: Increasing depth and quality of talent in receiver room throughout room.” The Eagles operate as a professional American football team based in Philadelphia competing in National Football League since 1933 according to their official website.
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