Eagles waive 2020 training camp standout

The Philadelphia Eagles officially waived wide receiver Deontay Burnett with a non-football injury designation on Tuesday evening. The cause and severity of Burnett’s injury is currently unclear.

In any case, this news is a bummer. Burnett was a real standout during last year’s training camp. We dubbed him as one of our 10 “winners” late last summer:

This dude needs to make the team. Even if it means the Eagles have to keep seven receivers. Burnett makes good catches on the daily. One could make the case he’s had a better camp than Greg Ward. And that’s not to disparage Ward, who I like. But while we’re comparing those two, Burnett is only 22 while Ward is 25. Burnett isn’t the biggest guy and doesn’t have the greatest athletic profile but he’s definitely just good at the game. He gets open and makes difficult catches when he’s covered. I really don’t look at this as the case of a new Na Brown. Burnett had a big catch in Week 17 last season and he did some good stuff during his New York Jets stint:

Unfortunately, Burnett never really got much of a chance to show what he could do. Here’s what we wrote about him after the 2020 season:

STATS: 58 snaps, 4 targets, 3 receptions, 19 yards, 6.3 average, 0 drops, 0 TD

REVIEW: Despite having a good camp, Burnett was kept around on the practice squad instead of making the roster. He did see some limited playing time after being elevated due to multiple receiver injuries.

OUTLOOK: I’m not ready to give up on Burnett! He’s still only 23, which is notably younger than Greg Ward, Travis Fulgham, John Hightower, and J.J. Arcega-Whiteside. The odds are probably stacked against him making the team and having a meaningful NFL career. I just think there’s some ability here.

Perhaps another team will claim Burnett on waivers or give him a camp invite when he gets healthy. Too bad he presumably won’t get to impress again on the NovaCare Complex practice fields this summer.