Eagles pick at No. 20 was a safe one. Nelson Agholor. Photo by T,J. Engler / contrastphotography.com

Last week the Eagles took USC wide receiver Nelson Agholor with the No. 20 pick in the 2015 NFL draft.

It was a solid pick. Agholor’s body of work at Southern Cal was outstanding, finishing his career with 179 catches for 2,571 yards and 20 touchdowns in 30 games, becoming just the 12th Trojan to notch 2,000 receiving yards in a career.

The 6-foot, 185-pounder also added 540 yards on 37 punt returns (14.6 average) and set a school record with four punt return touchdowns. Agholor also recorded 24 kickoff returns for 443 yards (18.5 average).
The 21-year-old speedster compiled 3,572 all-purpose yards and 24 touchdowns in his college career.

Great pick, right? Eagles head coach Chip Kelly and his staff filled a need and arguably took the best player available at the time.

At the press conference held shortly after the pick, Kelly was asked question after question about the Eagles’ failure to move up and take Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota. It seemed like no one cared who the Birds had just selected with their precious first round pick.

Finally I had to ask …”Can you talk about the guy you liked? The guy you picked?”

Kelly must have thought…”OMG a question about the guy we picked?’

Kelly’s head swerved to the middle of the room so fast you’d have thought someone had just dropped a piano onto the 18th row…

Kelly spoke so fast it sounded like his words were coming out of a computer.
“Yeah, the guy we like, Nelson Agholor. Yeah, he’s a great fit for what we’re doing,” said Kelly, who if the coaching gig doesn’t work out could get a job as a disclaimer voice tag at the end of radio commercials.

“Know him fairly well. We tried to recruit him when I was in college. He never visited, but we knew him from Berkeley Prep back in Tampa. Got a real good extensive knowledge from the people at USC that coached him.

“Going back to his high school coach who we know very well. We worked him out. I think we had two private workouts with him, an outstanding punt returner along with an outstanding receiver, can play both inside and outside receiver. He’s got excellent speed, outstanding hands, catches the ball away from his body. Outstanding route runner, real student of the game. We were really excited, and he was kind of what our model is. He was the best player that was available for us that fit our system. So we were excited that he was there.

“We kind of were afraid and weathering the storm there a little bit, especially from 15 to 20 was he going to be available, and when he was, we were excited about it.”

It is time to move on.

Kelly kept his word and did not mortgage the future to get one player.

It is time to look at Agholor and what he brings to the table. The Nigerian native said he watched the Eagles play over the last two seasons and talked about what he saw.

“I enjoyed watching some of the things they did in terms of concepts,” Agholor said. “I really like the way they get guys the ball in space. Some teams in the NFL kind of throw the ball down field, I feel like this offense tries to utilize the run game and outside bubble screens to always keep the defense honest.”

Kelly was asked about when he drafted wide receiver Jordan Matthews last year, he talked about starting him inside as a rookie asking him to learn that. Is Kelly going to use the same approach with Agholor?

“We haven’t gotten that far,” Kelly said. “Let’s get him in the building and start talking to him a little bit. We also felt that because we knew we had [former Eagles WR Jeremy Maclin] and some guys on the outside that we felt comfortable with. But we lost Jason Avant. The one thing about Nelson is he’s played both. He’s played all over the field for them. He’s played inside receiver, he’s played outside receiver. [USC head coach] Steve Sarkisian did a great job of moving him around. He had 104 catches this past year. He lined up everywhere. He lined up in the backfield. Really versatile guy, smart guy, understands the game. So I think in his situation, you could line him up anywhere, and I think he can handle that from a mental standpoint.

“I guess the best way to say it is he’s just dialed in as a football player. He’s in the Jordan Matthews category in terms of his approach to the game. Always striving to be better.”

You can almost sense a feeling of relief with Eagles fans with regards to Mariota and this draft.

The pressure is off. It is time to focus on what is here and, if he is healthy, Sam Bradford is the quarterback.

Kelly was asked about his progress.

“He’s in Philly, he was here today,” Kelly said. “I expect to see him tomorrow rehabbing. He’s on schedule from talking to our doctors and our trainers. I think when we traded for him the following Sunday, he was in this building, and he’s been here every day since. I think he’s gone home one weekend. He’s working extremely hard. Really progressing out there. Monday will be the first day for us where we actually go on the field with him as coaches. So the last two weeks of the offseason program is what’s called Phase One. So we had meetings with the players and they were with our strength and conditioning coaches. So we’ll actually get on the field with all of our players on Monday for the first time. So it’s our first look at what he is and where he is and what he can do.

“He can run around,” Kelly continued. “It’s a total non-contact thing. We don’t have any equipment on. He can run around, we just haven’t specifically sat down to see what he can do, but we’re in the infancy stages of our offseason program.”

With a new backfield, new receiving corps, new quarterback corps and a new secondary, the Eagles go forward and out of the Kelly infancy stage. It is his team now.