If the NFL season began today, Carson Wentz would be throwing the ball to a receiving corps of Alshon Jeffery, Greg Ward, JJ Arcega-Whiteside, and post-injury, 33 year old DeSean Jackson.

Obviously the Birds need help at the position, and even though you comb through these mock drafts and see some experts talking about drafting a linebacker, defensive end, or corner, the general consensus seems to be that Howie Roseman needs to grab at least two receivers to make for a successful draft.

As such, that was one of the key topics during Thursday’s 40-minute media session alongside assistant director of player personnel Andy Weidl. The Eagles PR staff did God’s work in transcribing every single quote from the availability, so instead of sifting through all of it on our own, I have provided each passage relevant to the receiver position, after the jump:

Q. When you spoke to us at the Combine, you were reluctant then to really talk about the depth of the wide receiver class before you had all the information. Now that you have that, how would you characterize this class and how deep into the class do you think it goes where you can find quality receivers? (Zach Berman/The Athletic)


HOWIE ROSEMAN: Well, you know, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Is that how the saying goes? We’ve been in this situation a couple times with strong classes and I think it’s come back to bite me to talk about it.

I would just say what we are doing is we are trying to stack the board based on the quality of the player. Obviously, there’s some positions that have more depth than others. I know a lot of other people have had the opportunity to talk about that specific position in that class, but we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves and say just because there’s a perceived position of strength that that’s where we’re going to choose from.

Q. The wide receiver position, why is it so difficult to evaluate? I’ve seen statistics that it’s right up there with quarterback in terms of first-round misses, guys that don’t work out. What goes into that, and, looking back on guys – wide receivers who didn’t become everything you’d hoped – what can you see there? Is there a common thread? Is there something that you’ve learned about that over the years? (Les Bowen/Inquirer)

ANDY WEIDL: Time will tell with this draft class, as with each class. But it’s an exciting class. There’s different flavors, obviously, different types of receivers and there’s plenty of them in this draft, and at every level we feel. We’re excited. Our scouts have done a great job getting to know these players, stacking the board. We had an excellent round of meetings last week with our coaches and everybody had a chance to voice their opinion. We’re excited about the strength, the depth and the level of players that are in this draft at the receiver position.

Q. As a scout, what have you found hard about that, about that position? (Les Bowen)

ANDY WEIDL: It’s case-by-case. I think it’s getting to know the players, and I think it’s just watching the guys, what you see, the vision of the player. There’s a lot of things that come into play when you’re evaluating receivers, as in any position in this business.

HOWIE ROSEMAN: I think, also, when we talk about the receiver position, what was going on five, 10 years ago and where these guys were raised and how they were groomed at the high school level, and the advent seven-on-seven camps, now these guys have so much more experience in the passing game. I don’t know what was going on in 2010 is the same for evaluating the position now.

But obviously coverages are different in the National Football League, the quality of the corner player is different and you have these college coaches who are able to scheme up opportunities and moving guys around, because in college football there’s obviously not the same level of play in the secondary that you have in the National Football League. I think sometimes that’s been the part of the evaluation in the past that you don’t take for granted. In terms of us and what we have done, we’ve got to look at that. We’ve got to look at the guys we have brought in and the reasons that they were brought in, and the guys who had success, who haven’t. We talked about it at some point this offseason about the fact that it was surprising to us, just going back and how much we value production, about the success that some of the guys had last year coming into the NFL and being productive right away. We’ve got to look at that stuff and we have got to learn from it and make sure we do whatever we can to add talent to our team.

Q. In the past, you’ve said that wide receivers take more time to acclimate to the pro level than some other positions, it may take a year or two before they should be expected to become starting-level players. With the success that some rookie receivers have had around the league over the last few years, has that philosophy changed in any way, and do you feel that there are receivers in this upcoming draft who can be immediate, key contributors? (Jimmy Kempski/PhillyVoice)

HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, the first part of that, I’d probably go back to my answer to Les and talk about how the wide receiver has been groomed and how it kind of played out in high school and college football. High school offenses are changing and so these guys are coming more prepared to college and then college offenses have changed in the advent of how popular the passing game is and spread formations and getting on the field earlier and getting more experience and coming to the NFL more prepared. I think it has changed in terms of guys who are ready to come in.

ANDY WEIDL: Just to piggyback on that, it’s become a space game and it’s become a game of matchups and spreading people out, receivers that can win on all three levels early, top of the route and guys that can stretch the field. It’s become a one-on-one league and a space game and guys that can win and guys that can go above the rim and play the football. It’s really evolved into that, I believe.

Outside of speed, what qualities do you look for in receivers that make you think they can stretch the field on the next level? And now that you have had more time to watch them, what are your scouting reports on Henry Ruggs and K.J. Hamler?(Eliot Shorr-Parks/WIP)

HOWIE ROSEMAN: Andy, you want to just forward our scouting reports to Eliot? Just kidding.

ANDY WEIDL: I think it’s time speed and play speed. I think you talk about when you’re watching a guy play, sometimes the 40 times don’t match up with the play speed, but a lot of times you have to come back to what you see on tape, are they running by people consistently, do they create gaps of separation. I think those are all things.

It’s evident we do tape study on players and you see sometimes the quality of defensive backs that players go up against. But there are a lot of fast receivers in this draft. The play speed, I remember my time with the Steelers, [former Steelers Head Coach] Chuck Noll always talked about play speed and play strength is different than time speed and measured strength sometimes.

I think all those things, they go into the equation when you’re factoring in these players and how they run.

HOWIE ROSEMAN: I think Andy makes a great point. You see all the time that a guy may run a 4:4 but he gets in pads and he doesn’t play to that time speed and then the opposite. We tell our scouts all the time, I don’t know that there’s a faster guy in pads that I’ve ever seen in my 21-year career than [Eagles WR] DeSean Jackson, and he didn’t run the fastest 40. So I think that we have to make sure that we are evaluating that.

[Eagles Chairman and CEO] Jeffrey [Lurie], I think last year or the year before, talked about all this data that we have and that’s what we are trying to also merge. You have this RIF data that gives you the speed of guys, so we try to balance what they are running at the Combine, and also speeds that we have collected. That’s what we are trying to figure out to make sure that these guys are not just good testers; that they play fast in their pads; that we see it on tape and then we use it like a seesaw and make sure all that information is evening out as we go through our final grades. I was just kidding about sending the scouting reports.

(Not that anybody gives a shit what I think, but I could see them trading up 3-4 spots to try to snag Jefferson is he’s still on the board. Feels inevitable.)