3:11pm: Givens’ one-year pact with the Eagles is worth $760K, tweets Mike Garafolo of FOX Sports. That’s the minimum salary for a player with Givens’ NFL experience.
1:21pm: The Eagles have added a wide receiver to their roster, announcing today (via Twitter) that they’ve agreed to terms on a one-year deal for veteran free agent Chris Givens. After previously visiting the Jets, Givens had been in Philadelphia today to meet with the Eagles.
A Rams fourth-round pick in 2012, Givens previously caught passes from Sam Bradford in St. Louis, and will now reunite with Bradford in Philadelphia. The 26-year-old’s best season came in his rookie campaign, when he caught 42 balls for 698 yards and three touchdowns. In subsequent years, Givens saw his role reduced, until he was ultimately traded by the Rams to Baltimore last October.
For the Ravens, Givens appeared in 12 games, starting six. While he was targeted 53 times by Baltimore quarterbacks, Givens managed to haul in just 19 of those passes for 346 yards and a touchdown.
The Eagles, who released Riley Cooper earlier this offseason will add Givens to a wide receiving corps that includes Jordan Matthews, Nelson Agholor, and Josh Huff, among others. All three of those players have been day one or day two picks in the last two drafts, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Philadelphia won’t target the position again in this spring’s draft.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
He has the speed and ability to get by defenders, but he doesn’t have the ball-tracking skills to be considered a true deep threat. Still, you could do much worse with a No.4 wideout, and given that, and considering that his speed can at least keep an opposing defense honest, it’s not a bad pickup.