The Eagles continued piling up speedy wide receivers Saturday, drafting Quez Watkins of Southern Mississippi in the sixth round.
Watkins is the third wide receiver the Eagles drafted this year and the fourth they acquired.
They took Jalen Reagor out of TCU in the first round on Thursday and John Hightower out of Boise State in the fifth round earlier Saturday. They also acquired Marquise Goodwin from the 49ers in a trade.
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This is the first time the Eagles have taken three wide receivers in the same draft since 1990, when they selected Mike Bellamy in the second round, Fred Barnett in the third and Calvin Williams in the fifth.
They also did it in a 20-round draft in 1965 and a 12-round draft in 1982.
The Eagles desperately needed to overhaul the wide receiver position, and although there are questions about all these guys, they’ve at least made an attempt to add speed and explosiveness to a moribund position.
After injuries to DeSean Jackson and Alshon Jeffery, the Eagles finished the season with Greg Ward, Deontay Burnett, Robert Davis and J.J. Arcega-Whiteside as their only wide receivers. Of that group, only Ward caught more than four passes the last four games of the season.
NFL
Watkins, 6-foot-0, 185 pounds, ran 4.35 at the Combine and had one of the highest yards-per-catch averages in the country this year.
He caught 159 passes for 2,404 yards and 17 touchdowns in three years at Southern Miss and had a big year this past fall with 64-for-1,178 and six touchdowns. He ranked 11th in the BCS with 18.4 yards per catch, two spots below John Hightower, who averaged 18.5.
Watkins is the first Southern Miss player the Eagles have drafted in 20 years, since they picked wide receiver Todd Pinkston in the second round in 2000.
Watkins and Pinkston rank second and third in school history in receiving yards. Pinkston finished with 2,366, 38 fewer than Watkins.
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