Would it be great to have Randy Moss or Chad Johnson or Larry Fitzgerald or Plaxico Burress or that guy down in Dallas? Absolutely. But there are only about a dozen legitimate No. 1 receivers in the league.
The reason the Eagles have plummeted from third to 11th in the league in passing and from sixth to 18th in scoring is not because of Reggie Brown and Kevin Curtis.
When Brown was averaging 17.7 yards per catch and hauling in a team-high eight touchdown passes last season, I don't recall anyone in radioland suggesting he wasn't good enough. And the difference between last year's other starting wideout, Donté Stallworth, and his replacement this year, Curtis, is, well, there isn't really a difference.
"It's a wash," said a personnel man for an NFC North team.
There is a perception that Stallworth is night-and-day faster than Curtis. The truth is, the speed difference between them is negligible. In his workout for scouts before the '02 NFL draft, Stallworth ran a 4.32 40. A year later, before the '03 draft, Curtis ran a 4.41.
Last year, Stallworth averaged 3.2 receptions per game for the Eagles. Curtis is averaging 4.6. Last year, Stallworth averaged 60.4 receiving yards per game. Curtis is averaging 79.1. Last year, Stallworth averaged .42 touchdowns per game. Curtis is averaging .50. The only category Stallworth outproduced Curtis is yards per catch. He averaged 19.1 last year, while Curtis is averaging a slightly lower, but still impressive 17.1.
Right now, Curtis is on a 74-catch, 1,266-yard, eight-touchdown pace. That second figure would be the third-highest in Eagles history, behind only Mike Quick's 1,409 yard in '83 and Irving Fryar's 1,316 yards in '97.
