When Jahan Dotson was traded from the Commanders to the Eagles on Aug. 22, he didn’t have very long to process the trade.
“I had about a 3-hour car ride to get over it,” Dotson said on Tuesday. “I was able to do that and move on.”
As the Eagles get set to face Dotson’s former team on Thursday, the former first-round pick claims this game doesn’t have any extra significance for him. He’s trying to just treat it like any other week.
He said he didn’t even circle this game on his calendar.
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“The main thing is the main thing,” Dotson said. “Come out on top and get a W.”
Sound familiar?
Those are words we’ve heard Jalen Hurts say countless times during his time as the Eagles’ starting quarterback so to hear Dotson parrot them isn’t a surprise. In fact, it makes a ton of sense when you think about the last two weeks, because Dotson and Hurts have been on the same page.
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Dotson is earning the trust of his quarterback.
“Everything is coming in time,” Hurts said this week about Dotson. “It comes with reps, it comes with conversation and communication. Obviously, when you’re able to take advantage of those matchups and take advantage of those opportunities, you seem to find yourself in more of them.”
Dotson has not been extremely productive this season. In nine games, he has just 8 catches for 98 yards. But it seems like he and Hurts are starting to turn a corner after hitting explosive plays in back to back weeks.
Against the Jaguars, Dotson made an acrobatic 36-yard catch and then against the Cowboys, Hurts hit Dotson with a 27-yard back-shoulder throw. A back-shoulder throw is all about trust.
“Big-time trust, big-time execution,” Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore said. “I think it shows Jahan – we all would love every guy to get a whole bunch of catches every game because we think the world of all these guys. And for him to hang in there and then make two big-time catches, each one the last two weeks, I think goes to his consistency and his willingness to keep putting in the work. And Jalen's trust in letting it go. We'll continue to have those opportunities for him.”
Dotson’s catch came in the second quarter on a 2nd-and-8. Hurts saw a single-high safety look and trusted Dotson in a 1-on-1 situation.
The big key on this play was trust.
“Him just believing in me, that I was going to be in the right spot,” Dotson said. “Me trusting that he was going to put the ball in the right spot. We connected. That’s pretty simple.”
Hurts is big on building trust with his receivers. It’s why he gets them together to throw in the offseason and it’s why he always brings up an old recruiting visit with DeVonta Smith as the origin story for their rapport. He doesn’t have that long history with Dotson, so the two have tried their best to pick up extra reps.
Shortly after the trade, Dotson and Hurts stayed back at the Linc after a practice at the stadium to work on their timing together. That process of building trust has continued during the season.
But as many times at they rep plays during practice, Dotson knows he has to earn the trust of his quarterback during games. He has certainly done that the last two weeks.
“Actions are louder than words,” Dotson said. “Me making plays obviously helps that. He feels that he can trust me when he puts the ball in my vicinity. I trust that he’s going to put it somewhere where I can make a play. I know I can make a play. I know I’m capable of doing that. It’s growing each and every day.”
On a team with A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Dallas Goedert and Saquon Barkley, there aren’t a ton of leftover touches to go around. While it’s a nice idea to have a productive WR3, that guy isn’t going to be a high-volume player.
That’s why is so important for Dotson to make the most of whatever opportunities he does get in the offense.
“That's always tricky because you have to be able to take advantage of the opportunity you get,” head coach Nick Sirianni said. “Jahan is used to in college and even at Washington, five, six, seven targets a game. Maybe you're only going to get one, two, three targets a game here. What are you going to do with those opportunities?”
The Commanders selected Dotson with the No. 16 overall pick of the 2022 draft out of Penn State and he had decent production in his two years in Washington, going over 500 yards receiving in 2022 and 2023. But in the summer, with a new coaching staff in place, it was clear that Dotson had fallen out of favor before the trade.
Dotson says he isn’t surprised to see the success the Commanders have had this year. But he is excited for what should be a great matchup on Thursday Night Football.
“Yeah, they have a lot of great players, a lot of great coaching,” Dotson said. “So it’s exciting to see what they’re doing and create a little bit of a matchup in the division between two very good football teams. It is exciting. It wasn’t a surprise to me because I got to see the work that those guys put in behind closed doors. I wasn’t surprised at all but it is going to be a fun one on Thursday.”
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