Olamide Zaccheaus just isn’t returning to the Philadelphia Eagles after signing a one-year contract final yr.
The St. Joe’s Prep alumnus is as a substitute headed south to signal with the Washington Commanders. It’s there OZ is reunited with former Eagles offensive coordinator and present Commanders assistant head coach/offensive cross recreation coordinator Brian Johnson.
Zaccheaus can also be again along with Marcus Mariota, who he performed with in Atlanta earlier than coming to Philly. OZ overlapped with new Commanders head coach Dan Quinn on the Falcons from 2019-2020.
The Eagles seemingly signed OZ to compete with Quez Watkins for the third extensive receiver position final yr. OZ started the season as WR4, although, and by no means actually climbed increased on the depth chart regardless of profiting from his restricted alternatives. Whereas unhealthy issues occurred each time the Eagles focused Quez, good issues usually occurred when OZ’s quantity was known as.
Zaccheaus caught 10 of his 20 targets for 164 yards (16.4 common), two touchdowns, and 0 drops. His two scores got here in high-leverage conditions:
Olamide Zaccheaus has 2 TDs this yr.
1) 34-yard reception on Third-and-10 towards the Bucs.2) 29-yard reception on Third-and-15 towards the Payments.#Eagles
— Brandon Lee Gowton (@BrandonGowton) November 27, 2023
The latter of his two catches, depicted within the header photograph for this text, was particularly spectacular.
Along with these flashes, OZ was a participant who did the soiled work. He contributed on particular groups, logging 112 snaps there (25% of the crew’s complete). He caught a faux punt throw from Braden Mann late within the season towards the Cowboys. OZ additionally did job of downfield blocking on some catch-and-run landing scores by DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown. It’s a bit befuddling how he didn’t earn extra offensive enjoying time in Philly.
Regardless, OZ is transferring on. And it didn’t appear seemingly that the Eagles would re-sign him after bringing in each DeVante Parker and Parris Campbell. The crew might look so as to add a rookie within the 2024 NFL Draft to compete with these veterans for the WR3 and WR4 roles.