Eagles officially sign Kamar Aiken, release Markus Wheaton

The Philadelphia Eagles signed free agent wide receiver Kamar Aiken and released Markus Wheaton on Wednesday morning, according to an official announcement from the team.

The news of Aiken re-signing with the Eagles was first broken by his agent on Tuesday evening. Aiken was one of seven players who worked out for Philly yesterday.

Aiken, 29, originally signed with the Eagles prior to the start of 2018 training camp. He failed to impress during practice; his frequent drops were the most memorable moments. Aiken didn’t manage to log a single reception in the two preseason games he played before suffering an injury that caused him two miss the final two games of the summer.

I guess the Eagles feel comfortable with Aiken since he’s produced at the NFL level before (143 receptions for 1,672 yards and nine touchdowns) and he can contribute on special teams. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It makes sense that the Eagles would wait until after Week 1 to since Aiken since he’s a vested veteran. But by the same logic, it doesn’t make sense that they signed Wheaton to the 53-man roster for just one week. Wheaton is also a vested veteran and the Eagles guaranteed his entire season salary just so he could play a total of three snaps (two offensive and one special teams) for Philadelphia against the Falcons last week. It’s not the end of the world that the Eagles did that, but it seems like a perfectly avoidable waste of resources. Like, they couldn’t have had a non-vested vet (Greg Ward or Rashard Davis) fill that role for one week?

In any case, the Eagles are moving forward with the following six wide receivers on their 53-man roster: Alshon Jeffery, Nelson Agholor, Mike Wallace, DeAndre Carter, Shelton Gibson, and Aiken. Jeffery is expected to miss at least one more game, if not more. The Eagles also placed Mack Hollins on injured reserve last week. Hollins is eligible to return to the roster but not until after Week 8.