What Does Miles Austin Actually Bring to the Eagles?

There hasn't been a team more active since the 2015 league year began than the Philadelphia Eagles. Head coach Chip Kelly has taken a buzzsaw to his offense. A new quarterback in Sam "Ironman" Bradford. A new tailback in DeMarco "Is 392 a Lot?" Murray.

To this point, however, Kelly hasn't made a "splash" addition to compensate for the loss of top wideout Jeremy Maclin. In fact, the wide receiver the Eagles did add in free agency has elicited more groans than cheers from the fanbase.

With good reason.

Earlier this week, as Jeff McLane of The Philadelphia Inquirer reported, the Eagles signed veteran wide receiver Miles Austin to a one-year deal worth $2.35 million. The deal became official on Friday, with Aaron Wilson of The Baltimore Sun breaking down the financial details:

It's a signing that's been met with a healthy dose of skepticism, including from ESPN's Eric Karabell:

It's not exactly hard to see why.

To say that Miles Austin has struggled a bit with injuries is akin to stating that politicians are occasionally somewhat disingenuous. It's accurate, but it doesn't really begin to cover it.

Year	G	GS	Rec.	Yards	Avg,	TD	PFF Rank*
2006	9	0	0	0	0	0	N/A
2007	16	0	5	76	15.2	0	N/A
2008	12	0	13	278	21.4	2	N/A
2009	16	9	81	1320	16.3	11	10
2010	16	16	69	1041	15.1	7	97
2011	10	10	43	579	13.5	7	40
2012	16	15	66	943	14.3	6	36
2013	11	8	24	244	10.2	0	85
2014	12	11	47	568	12.1	2	42

In nine NFL seasons, Austin has played in 16 games only four times. He hasn't made it through an entire season without missing time since 2012, and he hasn't hit 1,000 receiving yards in a season since 2010.

That includes a 2014 season in Cleveland that was cut short by a lacerated kidney. However, despite that lengthy injury history and the fact that Austin's on the wrong side of 30, he insisted to Geoff Mosher of CSN Philadelphia that there's still plenty left in the tank:

"

I’m 30 now so I’m sure I’ve probably lost some bit of explosiveness from being 22 years old. But I don’t think it’s that much. I feel good. I feel healthy.

I feel like with a slight loss — maybe, potentially, I don’t know … even with slight loss of burst or whatever we were talking about — I think the fact that I know the game more I can still do what needs to be done, if that makes sense. I don’t feel like I’ve lost anything because I’ve gained things mentally.

"

That appears to be the subject of some debate. It's never a good sign when questions, such as the one posed by Brandon Gowten of SB Nation, are asked of a fanbase: "Which Eagles wide receiver is worse: Miles Austin or Riley Cooper?" Gowten wrote: 

"

Cooper will be 28 in September. He's coming off a season where Pro Football Focus graded him the worst wide receiver in the entire NFL (111th out of 111). He finished the 2014 season with 55 receptions for 577 yards (10.5 average) and three touchdowns. He also fumbled once. Cooper dealt with a high-ankle injury that forced him to miss most of last year's training camp but otherwise he's been pretty healthy. He's never played less than 11 games and he played all 16 the past two seasons.

Austin will be 31 in late July. The veteran pass catcher posted 47 receptions for 568 yards (12.1 average) and two touchdowns for the Browns in 2014. Though Austin was slightly more productive than Cooper last season (especially considering the lackluster state of the Browns' offense), he's obviously way more of an injury risk. Austin hasn't played in all 16 games since 2010. He's missed 15 games in the past four seasons; nine in the last two.

"

Given that Austin finished 2014 a so-so 42nd among wide receivers at PFF, can I pick none of the above?

That's the position some fans and pundits are taking—that the Austin signing just isn't that big of a deal, that he'll only serve as a complementary piece, while second-year pro Jordan Matthews steps into the role of the team's No. 1 wideout.

A role that Matthews himself told the Philadelphia Inquirer's Zach Berman he wants no part of:

"

People ask me about being the No. 1 wide receiver; Forget it. I want us to be a receiving corps. That's what I want it to be.

I think you would think that I might get a whole lot more outside reps now just because Maclin is gone, but I already had talked to coaches, and they were already going to implement me more on the outside as opposed to just the inside regardless. I don't think that's a crazy, huge deal.

"

Matthews' team-first sentiment is laudable, but it's also misplaced.

Simply put, the Eagles need Matthews to step into the void left by Maclin's departure. Especially if any of the various potential first-round machinations ascribed to Kelly by various sources this year come to pass that don't involve drafting a wideout early.

It's no secret that Kelly is a big fan of sports science, and he's shown zero reluctance to acquire players like Bradford, Murray and Austin—all of whom have extensive injury histories—this spring.

Say what you want about the Chipster, but he isn't sitting on his hands. Eighteen months from now he'll either be looked at as a genius or a fool—there's no middle ground.

With that said, though, we've seen nothing from Miles Austin that indicates he's going to suddenly turn back the clock and become a 1,000-yard player for the Eagles. It's a fairly safe bet that at some point this year the Eagles will be forced to play a game without him.

Maybe the fans who think this deal is overblown are right. Maybe we'll see Austin function as little more than a chain-moving veteran and steadying influence on the offense.

Eagles fans should hope so, because the more Kelly expects from Austin, the bigger the chance those same fans will want to fit Kelly with a dunce cap as the calendar turns to 2016.

Gary Davenport is an NFL Analyst at Bleacher Report and a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association and the Pro Football Writers of America. You can follow Gary on Twitter at @IDPManor.