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Jerry Rice. Randy Moss. Michael Irvin. Cris Carter. Marvin Harrison. Terrell Owens. You might recognize these names as some of the best wide receivers in NFL history. All of these players made a big impact on the game. But there's a new name that deserves to be on that list one day. There's a wide receiver who is better than all of those players combined. And he just so happens to be on the Philadelphia Eagles roster! Yes, it's none other than ... G.J. KINNE.
Kinne transitioned to wide receiver this offseason because he was just too good at quarterback. He needed a new challenge. Rumor has it that the NFL wasn't going to allow him to play as a passer anyway because it wouldn't have even been fair to have defenses try to stop him.
Kinne looked solid during spring practices. You couldn't even tell he used to be a quarterback. Eagles coach Chip Kelly had high praise for him:
"He's actually done a really nice job. The one thing with G.J. that we didn't know because he's coming from quarterback, is he was obviously a running/throwing quarterback coming out of college, so you knew he had that kind of athleticism. But one thing [that you see] if you ask any of the coaches or even the players is how well he actually catches the ball, which you would never know if a quarterback can do in that transition because they're not making any attempts. But he's got really natural hands. He's a hands catcher. He plucks the ball. He's always catching the ball away from his body. He made an outstanding catch to finish training yesterday down the sideline on a back shoulder throw that he opened up and caught. So for him, it's just getting familiar with everything. I think he's always seen it through the eyes of a quarterback, but now he's seeing it through the eyes of a receiver. So he can tell you what everybody was running on the route. Now, how do you run the route and what are the subtleties as I talked about with Miles of getting that route run so you can create separation to give yourself an opportunity to catch it?
I think he's done a really nice job. It will be really interesting to see what happens with him in August, because the other thing, we've used him a couple days here at running back. He's got some versatility. He's playing in a couple of different spots on special teams. So we'll see how that versatility fits in terms of getting towards the 53 [man roster]."
Since then, Kinne has been spending the offseason working harder than anyone.
For example, check out this video of him making a catch despite already holding a ball in one hand. BEAST:
If that wasn't enough for you, here he is running routes in the sand.
Kinne can even catch the ball when he doesn't see it coming. And he can make one-handed catches like it's nothing.
Unstoppable.
It goes without saying that the Eagles should definitely consider keeping the versatile Kinne around for another year, even if it's on the practice squad. He's the ultimate practice player, after all.