Nelson Agholor declined to speak with the media on Wednesday, so it was up to his friends and teammates to speak for him.
And as he always does, Jordan Matthews spoke eloquently about the struggling Agholor, who may be benched or see his playing time curtailed for an undetermined period of time, according to Eagles head coach Doug Pederson.
“He’s doing OK,” Matthews said. “His girlfriend’s been in town, he’s been with some of the guys.
“We were at Carson Wentz’s house Monday night, spent some time there, and then Tuesday night we always have Bible study at Chase Daniel’s house, so the last two days, we’ve just been at the quarterbacks’ house fellowshipping and spending time together.
“He’s been great. Nelson’s a positive guy, so I know that maybe this might be a tough time. But at the same time, he is going to understand that he’s going to get better from it and he’s going to learn how to grow from it.”
Pederson was non-commital about Agholor Wednesday, saying he hasn’t decided if the second-year pro will start as usual, will be inactive or will be active but with limited reps.
Agholor has struggled all year but endured a nightmarish game against the Seahawks last Sunday in Seattle and admitted afterwards that he’s letting pressure get to him.
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Matthews spoke about that pressure and said he hopes Agholor understands that letting external pressure get to you is counter-productive.
“The pressure comes in when you think like you have to live up to first-round pick,” Matthews said. “That’s where the problem is. If you’re living up to being Nelson Agholor, you’re working your butt off and you’re doing the best you can, then who’s the only person who knows if you’re doing that is Nelson. So if you’re doing that, you can have peace with that.
“If you guys (in the media) go to work every single day, you don’t have a million people watching you. But at the end of the day, if you’re not working hard, you’re not going to be at peace with that. But if guys do your job 100 percent, you guys can go home and say, ‘OK I did my best, I’m good.’
“That’s the same thing Nelson has to feel. He can’t worry about all the other things, whether it’s the media, whether it’s fans, whether it’s this first-round pick label. No. Because once you try to do that, then you’re trying to live up to something that was never a burden meant for you to bear anyway.
“So he’s just got to shed that away and take a little bit of time mentally and then come back and get in the game. Because the kid works hard. I mean, he works extremely hard.
“If we’re talking about a dude who doesn’t have a good attitude and doesn’t give good effort, I have nothing to say on the subject. Because attitude and effort, those two things, if you don’t bring that, then I don’t even want you. You deserve everything you get.
“Nelson’s a classic case right now of a kid who’s not getting what he deserves. He puts in the time, but he hasn’t seen the fruits of his labor yet.
“So what does that say? Maybe it’s just not his time yet. But that doesn’t mean that he’s going to stop working and that doesn’t mean that I think he’s not a good football player. I think he’s a great football player. I know he’s going to help this team out and I want him to help this team out and we’re going to stick by his side.”
Wentz said his message to Agholor all week has been that he still believes in him, still plans to throw the football to him, still expects him to be a big part of this offense moving forward.
“I know Nelson really well, obviously better than most of you guys here, and I just keep telling him I have a lot of confidence in him,” the rookie QB said.
“I know mistakes happen, and he’s the last guy who’s trying to make mistakes. He wants to be perfect, he wants to be great, so I’m just positive with him. There’s no reason to hang your (head), no reason to get discouraged. You just keep battling, and I think he’ll be all right.
“Nelson’s a positive guy. He wants to be great. He gets frustrated, just like we all do when mistakes happen. But I tell him I believe in him and have a lot of confidence in him and he’s the same way.
“He’s going to come in here and be the same guy. He’s going to put his best foot forward every day. He’s going to stay after and work his tail off and that’s something that I think we all appreciate about him.”
Matthews is in his third year in Philly, and even though he’s been productive for the most part – his 205 catches are by far the most in franchise history by anybody in his first 42 games, 14 ahead of Keith Jackson – he’s been through enough adversity to understand what Agholor or any underachieving player is going through.
“I don’t sugarcoat anything,” Matthews said. “This is a hard place to play receiver. I think any receiver who’s ever played for the Eagles would definitely come and tell you that.
“When we make mistakes, we don’t make mistakes like in the trenches, where it takes you guys like six games to figure it out. No, it’s like wide open and there’s nobody else but us, the ball and Jesus, so everybody’s going to know you made that mistakes.
“You guys have to do your jobs. It’s just a bigger media market, so there’s more people doing the same job, so it’s not just one guy writing one article it’s seven, so therefore, it seems worse than it is.
“And then it’s in a heavily populated city that loves their football, so then that makes it seem worse than it is. But the cold facts are: Are you playing well or are you not? And if you’re not playing well and you guys are on top of somebody, then it’s, ‘OK, then they’re telling you the truth and I’m internalizing it because I haven’t been playing well.’
“But in Nelson’s case? I think he’s playing extremely hard. I know that he hasn’t played as well as he wants to, but just from talking to him I don’t think that the media or the outside stuff has been what’s really made him as upset as he is.
“I think he just feels like he’s worked his butt off and he hasn’t seen the fruits of his labor yet. It can be harder on some guys to play in a place like this, but you can’t worry about it.”