Keep an eye on Torrey Smith to the Eagles after his reported release

The San Francisco 49ers are releasing Torrey Smith, according to a report from his former teammate and retired NFL wide receiver Steve Smith (that’s weird, huh?).

Smith is due nearly $9.5 million in 2017 and the 49ers can cut him for a savings of nearly $4.7 million, so this report isn’t hard to believe.

If Smith does indeed become a free agent, it’s only natural to expect the Phildelphia Eagles to have interest. And not just because they’re already in every other free agent wide receiver out there.

Prior to the 2016 NFL trade deadline, there was plenty of buzz about the Eagles having interest in acquiring Smith. But a trade never really made a lot of sense due to his high cap number. And so the deadline passed with Smith remaining in San Francisco.

Signing Smith would give the Eagles a nice deep threat for Carson Wentz. Smith ranks second in active career NFL yards per reception leaders with 17.0. You might have been able to guess that DeSean Jackson ranks first on the list.

Another factor to consider when it comes to the Eagles’ interest in Smith is that he has a connection to Philadelphia vice president of player personnel Joe Douglas. Smith and Douglas overlapped together in Baltimore with the Ravens.

Smith would hardly be a slam-dunk solution to the Eagles’ receiving corps problems. In fact, one can question how good he really is. I found this stat pretty funny.

In addition to PFF’s rating (take it for what it’s worth), Football Outsiders ranked Smith 89th out of 93 pass catchers last season. That’s not great.

Smith seems like an acceptable backup plan for the Eagles if they can’t get Brandin Cooks or some of their other targets. Philadelphia shouldn’t be looking to spend big money on Smith.