Philly Front Office

The Eagles have traded TE Harrison Bryant to the Houston Texans for receiver John Metchie III. The teams are also swapping Day 3 picks (UPDATE: They unswapped the picks originally swapped in the CJGJ trade). I just wanted to get all the Metchie info into one place for everyone.

Metchie just turned 25 and went to Alabama with DeVonta Smith. He had a great junior season for the Tide that unfortunately ended with a torn ACL in that year’s SEC Championship Game. He left for the 2022 NFL Draft anyway but didn’t participate in the combine. Because of that, we only have his measurements, not any running or jumping stats. He comes in just under 6′ and 190 pounds. Still, the Texans drafted him in the 2nd round, 44th overall.

Then things got very real. After signing his rookie contract, Metchie was diagnosed with Leukemia and missed his whole rookie season. This form of Leukemia is a blood cancer that affects the ability to clot. Though it’s treatable, any form of cancer in a young person is a very scary introduction to adulthood (I know). He has made it back though and has been relatively healthy over his last 2 years. The reason he is available is because he never really clicked in the Texans offense, only seeing about 30 targets a year with 1 TD. For what it’s worth, the Texans were a mess on offense last year.

His cap hit will only be $1.8m this season and he is in the last year of his contract. However, since Bryant is going out, Metchie’s number will be offset by the outing $1.2m of Bryant. The Eagles still have plenty of money left to spend if they want to ($30m), but they don’t want to.

Bryant obviously didn’t have a place on this team as a possible 4th tight end. You could probably say the same for Metchie  too who figures to be the 4th or 5th receiver on the Eagles. Still, he figures to be a burner type who can give the Eagles an extra dimension on offense. I’m sure I can speak for everyone when I say we are all rooting for him.