Philadelphia Eagles: 5 burning questions in 2018

3. Will Alshon Jeffery dominate?

Jeffery didn’t have a bad season for the Eagles last year, but he certainly didn’t put up the sort of numbers an NFL team wants from its No. 1 wide receiver. He’ll need to drastically increase his production in his second season in Philadelphia to keep that title.

He certainly got a lot of opportunities to make plays last season. The Eagles targeted him 120 times in 16 games. Unfortunately, he only game down with 57 catches for 789 yards. That’s excellent production on a per catch basis, but he has to find a way to come down with more of the balls thrown to him.

In fairness to Jeffery, he’s always going to be a bit of a feast or famine wideout. He isn’t blessed with blazing speed but he’s got great height and length to go up and make tough catches in traffic. Sometimes that means his quarterbacks throw too many contested passes in his direction. The film shows Eagles quarterbacks doing that on quite a few occasions last year.

The easy solution for Jeffery would be to get open more often. He’s not creating much separation from defensive backs. He might be well served to drop a little weight and see if that gives his quickness an upgrade. Spending some time improving his route running skills would also be a good move.

The Eagles offense might not need All-Pro production from Jeffery, but it would give the unit a massive boost. No matter what, he needs to play better than he did in 2017.