Philadelphia Eagles' wide receiver competition battle gets clearer following preseason finale win over Jets

The Philadelphia Eagles' wide receiver competition battle was hotter than expected this summer, but things simmered down in the team's preseason finale win over the New York Jets.

After having a great start to the preseason, second-year wideout Ainias Smith didn't look the part against New York after dropping two balls. However, undrafted free agent rookie Darius Cooper and recently acquired John Metchie were taken out of the game early, which more than likely meant coaches had seen enough, and their spot on the 53-man roster is a lock -- even if neither lit up the stat sheet.

While Metchie is t he more obvious one to make the roster, Cooper is the Cinderella story.

Cooper, a standout at Tarleton State, not only made a name for himself in Philly this preseason but also league-wide.

He only hauled in one catch for eight yards against the Jets, but his outing against the Cincinnati Bengals is still very hard to ignore. Cooper finished that win leading all receivers while catching six of seven targets for 82 yards and one touchdown. Head coach Nick Sirianni topped off his impressive outing by singing nothing but high praise for him.

“I think he has a lot of good tools, catches the ball obviously really well,” Sirianni said of Cooper following the Eagles' first preseason win over Cincy. "Those are some tough catches that he made today, particularly on some of those shallows. That fourth-down shallow was like a perfect ball by Tanner with some traffic. I think they were in two-man, and he just made a really nice catch there. He’s continuing to get better, learning all the different spots that he needs to play. I think he’s got an opportunity to do some good things. Obviously, you saw that out there today.”

After Friday night, it looks like A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Jahan Dotson, John Metchie, and Darius Cooper are destined to make up Philly's receiving room this fall. Who gets the sixth spot remains to be seen, but things don't look good for Smith ahead of Tuesday's roster cutdown day.