J.J. Arcega-Whiteside: I wasn’t good enough last year

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Injuries took their toll on the Eagles receiving corps last season and that gave second-round pick J.J. Arcega-Whiteside plenty of chances to make an impact during his rookie season.

Arcega-Whiteside didn’t take advantage of them. He caught 10 passes for 169 yards and a touchdown as other rookie wideouts turned in strong seasons for other teams around the league.

That led some to say the Eagles made a mistake by taking the Stanford product. Arcega-Whiteside won’t argue with those who say he was a disappointment last year, but he is vowing to change some minds in his second season.

“I kept it real. I wasn’t good enough,” Arcega-Whiteside said, via Reuben Frank of NBCSportsPhiladelphia. “You turn on the TV, and you could see it. . . . Last year is in the past. I look back at it now and I’m thinking, ‘Man, I’m a totally different player than I was then,’ and I kind of laugh about it because I don’t even know who that was. And that just happens to some people. Some people get into the NFL and things are moving fast and it’s hard to keep up. Some people ball out their first year. But I look back at it and I’m not even the same guy, so I’m not even going to worry about what happened last year. Definitely going to be different this year.”

Arcega-Whiteside went on to say that it will be a “night and day” difference after an offseason spent losing weight and catching passes from a JUGS machine when he wasn’t in virtual meetings with the team. With Alshon Jeffery on the mend and Marquise Goodwin opting out, the Eagles could use a different Arcega-Whiteside than they had last season.