The Philadelphia Eagles’ acquisition of wide receiver A.J. Brown during the offseason meant that players such as Quez Watkins would see their role decrease in the 2022 campaign. Still, Watkins has continued to make the most out of his targets from quarterback Jalen Hurts this season.

Overall, Watkins has posted career highs in both catch percentage (73.7 percent) and receiving yards per reception (16.0) in the ongoing season. Even though he opened up the year on a sluggish note, the third-year wideout was recently able to turn the tide, tallying a combined 136 receiving yards in the Eagles’ last three games.

Even as Watkins is no longer a top-two wideout option on the roster, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni is still much pleased with not only the former Southern Miss star’s development but also how he continues to make the most out of his touches on offense this year.

“I think he’s handled it great,” Sirianni said during a press conference on Friday. “Obviously Quez [Watkins] is a big-time playmaker that wants to make plays. Just because Quez may not be stuffing the stat sheet, the last couple games have been good as far as his stats, but he still affects the game because of the speed that he has and the big play ability that he brings to this team.

“So that was on display, I think, against Minnesota where he had the big game and the catches.”

Sirianni also touched on a meeting that he held earlier this year with every player on the team about their role. In Watkins’ case, it was made clear to him that he would not be as much of a factor on offense this year as he was last season.

“But Quez, you try to go through — I think a lot of these questions, because I’ve been asked a lot of these questions, can trace back to the meeting of when we talked to everybody about their role,” Sirianni said. “Where I stood right there, I looked at every guy in here individually in front of their teammates, I talked to them each individually while everybody was in here and basically spelled out their role. Quez’s role was to be able to make timely plays just like he did last year. He had more opportunities when we needed him. Quez had a really good ability of making big plays last year when we needed him, and they were usually explosive ones.

“So that was really — and it was told to him that the pass game runs through A.J. [Brown], the pass game runs through DeVonta [Smith], the pass game runs through Dallas [Goedert], and you’re going to have to take advantage of the opportunities you get. So not everybody is going to like their role, but what you’re trying to do is get everybody to accept their role and be a star at their role because if we’re all stars at our role individually, we’ll be great collectively.”

For now, the Eagles have their attention set on their upcoming home matchup against the Green Bay Packers.