The Eagles WR corps has been absolutely decimated by injuries this season which has launched a truly inspirational story into the spotlight, and that is the recent success of wideout Greg Ward Jr. With Alshon Jeffery and Nelson Agholor both out of action in Week 15, Ward stepped up as the leading WR for this team by catching seven passes for 61 yards and one TD.

As we have done this season, we are going to take a deeper look at the story of who Greg Ward Jr. is as a player, what the state of the Eagles offense is, and what we can expect from Ward in the final week of the fantasy season.

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Player Profile

Greg Ward Jr. had an unconventional way of becoming an active member of the NFL and becoming a wide receiver in general. He played his college ball for the Houston Cougars as a lethal dual-threat quarterback and as a WR in his early years. He’s actually fourth all-time at the school with 8,704 passing yards in his career there. He had a big year as a junior where he threw for 2,827 yards with 17 TDs and six INTs while also rushing for 1,114 yards and an additional 21 rushing TDs. He only had 25 catches for 228 yards and two TDs in his career there as a receiver.

Ward went undrafted following his successful college career and thus decided to revert back to focusing on his career as a wide receiver. He was picked up by the Eagles as a practice squad member back in 2017 and was technically a member of the team when they beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl, though he was never activated to the big-league squad.

I first came across Ward when he was a member of the San Antonio Commanders in the now-defunct Alliance of American Football league (AAF) last spring. Ward stood out again there as a versatile weapon and his showing there helped him earn a spot with the Eagles again this season. He’s been continually waived, cut, and resigned to the practice squad but now has had a chance to shine with all of the injuries to the WRs.

Ward doesn’t offer earth-shattering measurables from the NFL Combine recording a 4.59 40-yard dash and is slightly undersized at just 5’11” and 186 lbs.

State of the Offense

With all due respect to Ward and this isn’t a knock against him as a player, but when someone like him is your defacto WR1, your offense is probably struggling. The Eagles have barely squeezed out wins in the last two weeks against the bottom-feeding Giants and Redskins. Carson Wentz has been throwing it a ton with 93 attempts in the last two games combined and has done so pretty well considering the circumstances with five TDs and no INTs in those two games.

While Ward stepped up nicely last week and has seen a decent amount of looks with 18 targets in his last two games, this offense is still run through Zach Ertz in the passing game as the dominant TE has accrued 23 targets in the last two games with three TDs in that span as well. The running game has also found new life with rookie Miles Sanders showing up big in both the passing and running game. He has seen at least five targets in each of his last four games and recently surpassed LeSean McCoy for the franchise rookie rushing record. Alshon Jeffery was recently placed on IR where DeSean Jackson has spent virtually all of the season and Nelson Agholor has also been banged up. Even when active, Agholor hasn’t offered much this season.

Outlook

It’s all about the opportunity here and Greg Ward Jr. is getting just that. Rookie wideout J.J. Arcega-Whiteside has been a complete non-factor despite the perfect scenario for him to get extra opportunities and Ward is settling in as a favorite target for Wentz in these dire times. His TD grab over Josh Norman last week was a thing of beauty.

The Eagles are about to enter their most critical matchup of the season at home against the Cowboys that will ultimately decide the fate of each team for the playoffs. The Cowboys mostly shut down the Rams last week but did give up a TD to Cooper Kupp. Before that, they got shredded by the Bears WRs as Allen Robinson and Anthony Miller combined for three TDs. While the Cowboys don’t look like a great matchup on paper, they are beatable recently. The Eagles lost to the Cowboys earlier this season in a game where Carson Wentz threw for just 191 yards with one TD and one INT. In his last home game against the ‘Boys, however, he fared much better with 360 yards with two TDs and one INT.

Now locked in as the team’s WR1, there is a reason to believe that Greg Ward Jr. could put up another solid performance this week fueled by volume. A Texas native playing against Dallas in such a big game just has all the ingredients for a feel-good story to come true. While I wouldn’t make Ward my top priority add with the likes of Breshad Perriman and Anthony Miller still floating around on the wire in a majority of leagues, Ward is a great grab in deeper leagues or if you don’t have a high enough priority or enough FAAB to lock in one of this week’s higher-priority pickups.

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John Ferguson is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from John, check out his archive and follow him @FantasyFerguson.