When I spoke with Johnny Wilson about his favorite NCAA plays at the scouting combine, he made it very clear that he did NOT want NFL teams to think of him as a tight end as opposed to a receiver despite the limited opportunities for true receivers with Wilson’s measurables — there just haven’t been too many successful receivers over his 6′ 6⅜” height threshold.
“If you go look at the Louisville game, the tape speaks for itself. I feel like every week, I showed what I can do. Just look at the Clemson game; they had an elite defense, but I was able to create separation and make some plays against them.”
This 41-yard catch up the numbers against Clemson was a nice Exhibit A in Wilson’s case for himself — he burned up the numbers against cornerback Sheridan Jones’ press coverage, established the leverage he wanted, and took the ball in as safety C.J. Mickens was converging.
The Eagles selected Wilson with the 185th pick in the sixth round, and both head coach Nick Sirianni and general manager Howie Roseman are fine with the receiver designation. “I think he can run the full route tree,” Roseman said. “I think a lot of times you do that when guys don’t have the lower body flexibility to get in and out of their breaks. We don’t see that with Johnny.”
