The Eagles’ latest roster move came via trade, flipping Harrison Bryant and a fifth-round pick to Houston for wide receiver John Metchie III and a sixth. Normally, I’ll do full-length film reviews for new additions, but with Metchie likely slotting in as more of a secondary piece, I wanted to put together a quicker overview of his game. Metchie’s path to this point has been anything but easy. After tearing his ACL during his best season at Alabama, he was later diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia in July 2022 and missed his entire rookie year while undergoing treatment. In order to write this piece, I watched all of his 2024 targets and pulled out the main takeaways below.
Pre-Draft
I often like to start reviews with what I thought of a player coming out of college. I had Metchie as my WR #10 and a 2nd round pick and wrote this for BGN…
“Metchie is another player that I seem higher on than consensus. He looks like a very well coached receiver to me, who is an excellent route runner who gets in and out of his breaks quickly and understands the nuances of how to get open. You can see some excellent examples where he attacks a cornerbacks blind spot to get free deep. He is more explosive in the short game than being a true vertical threat, but he does have enough long speed to threaten defences vertically. His biggest issue is his size and lack of play strength, and you see this against more physical cornerbacks when faced with press coverage or when trying to handle tough catches over the middle of the field. Despite this, I think he has the profile with excellent complementary receiver and should fit a lot of offences in the modern game”.
Strengths
Nuanced Route Running: Metchie is a very fluid mover, sharp on in-breakers, understands leverage, and how to threaten DBs before snapping routes off. He understands blind spots and how to get open.
Zone Awareness: Consistently finds soft spots in zone coverage, times his breaks well, and adjusts depth intelligently. This is my far his best trait and goes hand-in-hand with the next one…
Scramble Drill Value: Stays alive when plays break down, works back to the QB to help him out, and consistently gets open in off-script situations (an area the Eagles have lacked). He had a great relationship with CJ Stroud outside of structure.
Hands & Catch Reliability: Low drop rate (3% on 46 targets in 2023), generally a clean hands catcher.
Slot Versatility: More effective inside, where his craftiness and quickness show up (played 186 snaps in slot vs 128 wide last year).
Football IQ: He adjusts his speed and route depth based on coverage/safeties and seems to understand defensive coverages and where the weaknesses are.
Weaknesses
Struggles vs Man & Press: Gets locked up at the goal line and in tight coverage; he lacks the physicality to beat press corners.
Not a Vertical Threat: Only 2 targets of 20+ air yards last season; doesn’t consistently win deep. The Texans didn’t think this was a strength of his.
Limited YAC Ability: Only 75 yards after catch total, averaging 2.5 YAC per reception. Goes down quickly on first contact. He doesn’t have a lot of strength or power to run through arm tackles.
No Contested Catch Value: 0 contested catches in 2023. He’s not a jump-ball or ‘climb-the-ladder’ type of receiver.
Overall
John Metchie projects as a WR3/WR4 rotational piece in Philadelphia. He is best deployed as a slot/Z receiver who can get open vs zone coverage, provide a quarterback with a reliable target, and offer a safety valve on scramble drills.
He doesn’t expand the field vertically or provide contested-catch ability, which limits his upside in an Eagles offense built around outside-the-numbers throws to A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. In some ways, he feels like a bad fit for this offense because he wins a lot in the middle of the field, rather than outside the numbers. However, he brings a different flavor and option to the receiving group as a crafty, inside separator who thrives in the middle of the field and outside of structure.
His impact will depend heavily on chemistry with Jalen Hurts. If they can sync on scramble drills and timing routes, Metchie could become a useful rotational weapon, especially in 11 personnel looks or as an injury replacement. The most interesting thing is that he has a skill set (crafty but not explosive), which is similar to Jahan Dotson, so I’m not sure how the Eagles will use both of them.
Overall, I am rooting hard for Metchie. I liked his college film and I enjoyed watching his 2024 targets. He’s a proper receiver who should help out this offense in certain situations. If you want to watch the video of his 2024 targets with my analysis for this piece, it is over on my Patreon.
Thank you for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to comment below and ask any questions. If you enjoyed this piece, you can find more of my work and podcast here. If you would like to support me further, please check out my Patreon.
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