The Fulgham mystery keeps growing deeper

[Road to Victory]

https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/eagles/travis-fulgham-mystery-keeps-growing-deeper-eagles-doug-pederson
 

The Fulgham mystery keeps growing deeper

Rueben Frank

Doug Pederson spoke for a couple minutes Wednesday about Travis Fulgham, but five words stuck out:

"He’s got to play better.”

Why has Fulgham’s playing time diminished down to about nothing not long after he was the NFL’s most productive receiver over a five-week span?

"He’s got to play better.”

One of the stranger developments of this strange 2020 season has been Fulgham’s sudden rise from the practice squad to spectacular heights and his equally rapid plunge back into obscurity.

His 435 yards were most in the NFL from Week 4 through Week 8. And his 152 yards against the Steelers are 15th most in NFL history by a player in his first five NFL games.

Since that whirlwind five-game stretch, the Lions and Packers castoff has four catches for 32 yards in five games. He doesn’t have a catch in the Eagles’ last two games and was targeted once in the Saints game. 

His snaps have gone from 73 per game through the Browns game to 37 to 25 to 11.

Heck, he played half as many snaps Sunday as rookie sixth-round pick Quez Watkins, who has one career catch for three yards.

Fulgham, meanwhile, has gone from 13 targets in the Steelers game to 11 snaps in the Saints game.

Pederson in recent weeks has hinted at Fulgham’s work habits being an issue:

Nov. 23: "I’m concerned about Travis' production and getting him better and helping him get better. He needs to get better.”

Nov. 25: "He really has to focus in and detail his work and practice hard and fast.”

Nov. 30: "He’s got to continue to work hard each week.”

Now we’re at the point where Pederson trusts Alshon Jeffery more than Fulgham, which is something nobody could have foreseen a month ago.

"We still game plan for Travis,” Pederson said. "I’ll tell you this, Alshon is getting healthier and is playing better and we game plan for him. There are certain plays, specific plays that Travis is going to be in on and there's specific plays that Alshon is going to be in on. It's the same with Jalen Reagor versus (John) Hightower or Quez or somebody like that. It's just a matter of how we as coaches see the game plan going and getting everybody involved.”

In Pederson’s defense, Fulgham has four drops, including a bad one Sunday against the Saints on a ball that sailed right through his hands and should have been a 20-yard gain.

Jeffery has only three catches in five games back after missing a year but did catch a touchdown pass from Jalen Hurts Sunday.

"Listen, we know we have to do better,” Pederson said. "He has to do better. He's got to play better, but at the same time Alshon is playing better too, so we're going to play the guys on that particular play who are in the game. That's based on game plan, so you can't put it on Travis. You can put it on me. I'm the play caller, I call the personnel groups, so put it on me."

Maybe. But in this case, you have to put a lot of it on Fulgham as well.

[Madriver]

I don't get it, even though I never thought Fulgham was all that. He seemed to be at least a decent temporary replacement for a gimpy Alshon. 

Something tells me he pissed off the coaches by showing up late or leaving early or not giving his all until game day. 

[Road to Victory]

1 hour ago, Madriver said:

I don't get it, even though I never thought Fulgham was all that. He seemed to be at least a decent temporary replacement for a gimpy Alshon. 

Something tells me he pissed off the coaches by showing up late or leaving early or not giving his all until game day. 

He sounds lazy if you read between the lines. Doesn’t practice hard.

[UK_EaglesFan89]

I mean look it could just be as simple as... He's just not that good. He had a really good start and looked bright those first few games but perhaps that was just a false start. Sadly he's struggled more than he's been good overall so at this point I guess that's what he is?

[time2rock]

Doug:  "You can put it on me."

No ish coach

His game day roster mismanagement is as bad as Howie's overall roster mismanagement.  

[birdman#12]

Andy Reid rarely trusted or played rookies........Pedersen is the same way.......they both HATE dealing with either rookie inconsistency or mistakes......Much less than they tolerate from veterans.

It's why rookies who go to pittsburgh, seattle, and even dallas, among others, get the opportunity to play early and often.

After last season's WR fiasco and the annual injuries of Jeffrey and Jackson, Reagor, Fulgham, Hightower, Watkins and even JJAW should be playing all the time.

But this season also has been difficult to judge because of the unprecedented fall of Carson Wentz......you can't evaluate young WRs when the QB play is so bad.

Either way, Jeffrey should not be playing and taking time away from any of these guys......especially now that Hurts has replaced Wentz......let them develop some chemistry together and find out what they can do....

 

[jsb235]

The biggest issue to me is that we aren't getting much from Jeffery (and to a lesser extent Ertz) right now, so not only are we probably better with guys like Hightower and Fulgham (and Richard Rodgers) playing, we also aren't getting any answers on what the team needs next year. So we are not only shooting ourselves in the foot, we are shooting ourselves in the other foot as well.

I could see if Jeffery and Ertz were giving us a chance to win, but both guys are getting outproduced by Greg Ward, and the tape shows that Rodgers has been better than Ertz all year. When that happens, it's time to realize that as good as those players once were, they aren't anymore.

  

[matchew88]

No, Doug and Howie need to not be put the team in positions where they are are criticizing a guy they pulled out of their A@@ to save the season.

The situation of not having better offensive production IS YOU. Not Travis, who came out of nowhere.

[Cochis_Calhoun]

His receptions went off a cliff before he started losing snaps, the last 4 games he caught 1 of 5 off 88% of snaps, then 1 of 7 off 96% of snaps, then he caught 2 of 2  off 55% of snaps and then neither of 2 on 40% of snaps and a couple of the missed catches have been 2019 Agholor bad. Greg Ward has been more reliable as a #2 and Fulgham has done very little to go ahead of Jeffery as WR3 in an offense where passing is likely to be rarer and so the catching has to be surer.

[ManchesterEagle]

3 hours ago, Cochis_Calhoun said:

His receptions went off a cliff before he started losing snaps, the last 4 games he caught 1 of 5 off 88% of snaps, then 1 of 7 off 96% of snaps, then he caught 2 of 2  off 55% of snaps and then neither of 2 on 40% of snaps and a couple of the missed catches have been 2019 Agholor bad. Greg Ward has been more reliable as a #2 and Fulgham has done very little to go ahead of Jeffery as WR3 in an offense where passing is likely to be rarer and so the catching has to be surer.

This is the reality. Dropped off a cliff in terms of performance and clearly has issues with working hard/practice habits.

Jeffery is a shadow of his former shelf, but still knows how to play the position. 

[Miami]

He caught a lot of balls so defenses started taking him away as an option.  Then Jeffrey came back.  We need to get this guy the ball.  Has very strong hands.

[UK_EaglesFan89]

28 minutes ago, Miami said:

He caught a lot of balls so defenses started taking him away as an option.  Then Jeffrey came back.  We need to get this guy the ball.  Has very strong hands.

Strong hands? He's dropped a fair few passes to be fair. 

[Portyansky]

It's not a mystery why he's gotten less playing time as soon as Alshon came back. If its his work/practice ethic how was he killing it during that stretch? You're telling me his work ethic became a problem after he started to get noticed? You'd think an athlete would want to work even harder. Who knows... "We talking about practice...."

[dawkins4prez]

On 12/18/2020 at 1:21 PM, Cochis_Calhoun said:

His receptions went off a cliff before he started losing snaps, the last 4 games he caught 1 of 5 off 88% of snaps, then 1 of 7 off 96% of snaps, then he caught 2 of 2  off 55% of snaps and then neither of 2 on 40% of snaps and a couple of the missed catches have been 2019 Agholor bad. Greg Ward has been more reliable as a #2 and Fulgham has done very little to go ahead of Jeffery as WR3 in an offense where passing is likely to be rarer and so the catching has to be surer.

his targets versus catches rate is abysmal.  Don't knw why any Eagles fan would have to question it more than that.

 

The history of undrafted/practice squad guys who come out of nowhere for a month and then go back to being nobodys is a damn long list.  Last year it was Ward who has hung around as a solid contributor but certainly not a star either.

[eagle45]

Fulgham is not good.  Not even close.  End of story.