Brian Mitchell may hold the NFL record for kickoff return yards, but it doesn’t sound like the former Eagle holds the team’s new receiver in high regard.
On Thursday, Philadelphia traded a third-round pick and two seventh-round picks to the Commanders for Jahan Dotson and a fifth-round pick. Dotson disappointed as the 16th-overall pick in the 2022 NFL draft with 1,041 yards over two seasons, but as a No. 3 receiver behind A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, the Eagles believe Dotson could do well in 2024.
Not so fast, according to Mitchell, who spent 10 years in Washington and hosts the “BMitch & Finlay Show” on 106.7 The Fan in D.C. As a recent guest on the “Ike, Spike and Fritz Show” on Philadelphia’s WIP FM, the former running back offered a scathing review of Dotson’s time with the Commanders.
“Well, he’s a young man who showed in his rookie season that he can actually play some football,” Mitchell said. “But last year, he didn’t have a good year, and then this year, I think he lost some of his confidence. He said it to several reporters that, you know, ‘I got to get my confidence back.'”
Dotson saw 22 more targets last year than in 2021 but finished with only five more yards and three fewer touchdowns while averaging 4.3 less yards per catch, a middling effort Mitchell seems to feel Dotson carried into training camp.
“In this camp, I didn’t see him competing like I should see him competing,” Mitchell said. “I saw him moping a little bit. I made a comment last week or so and I said, ‘You’ve got people out there acting like they supposed to be given a job and their body language is off.’ He was one of the guys I was (talking about).”
Fortunately for Dotson, the bar for the Eagles’ No. 3 receiver is pretty low. Tight end Dallas Goedert held the honor with 1,294 yards from 2022-2023. In fact, Philadelphia hasn’t had an actual wide receiver finish as the team’s No. 3 receiver since Quez Watkins had 647 yards in 2021.
If Dotson needed motivation, being traded to a division rival should do it. Now the team needs to get him up to speed for its Week 1 matchup against the Green Bay Packers in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
