April 19, 2023
The Philadelphia Eagles are signing former Atlanta Falcons WR Olamide Zaccheaus, according to a report from ESPN.
The Falcons originally signed Zaccheaus as an undrafted free agent out of Virginia in 2019. He made the Atlanta's 53-man roster in his first training camp, and managed to stick on their roster for four seasons, putting up the following numbers:
| Olamide Zaccheaus | Rec | Yards | YPC | TD |
| 2019 | 3 | 115 | 38.3 | 1 |
| 2020 | 20 | 274 | 13.7 | 1 |
| 2021 | 31 | 406 | 13.1 | 3 |
| 2022 | 40 | 533 | 13.3 | 3 |
As you can see, Zaccheaus' receptions and yards improved each season. In college, Zaccheaus played a little running back before becoming a receiver full-time. In his final season at Virginia, he caught 93 passes for 1058 yards and 9 TDs. Before his college days, Zaccheaus attended St. Joe's Prep In Philly.
Zaccheaus is a small slot receiver at 5'8, 193. He ran a 4.49 40 at Virginia's pro day in 2019. A taste of what he is as a receiver (you'll have to click "Watch on YouTube"):
The Eagles have a clear need for more depth at receiver.
Their top 4 receivers in 2022 were A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Quez Watkins, and Zach Pascal. The only other receiver to get any snaps in the regular offense was Britain Covey, who got 21 snaps in garbage time. The Eagles never needed to dip into their reserves because everyone stayed healthy.
As for performance, Brown and Smith were everything the Eagles could have hoped they'd be and more, while Pascal did his job in a dirty work role. Watkins struggled as the No. 3.
Pascal left in free agency, while Watkins has a noteworthy situation to monitor. After hitting playing time benchmarks, Watkins earned a bump in base salary to $2,743,000, which is not guaranteed. The Eagles could ask Watkins to take a pay cut, and perhaps face the possibility of being waived if he refuses. The presence of Zaccheaus makes that situation more interesting.
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