When the Houston Texans traded John Metchie III, the wide receiver became the 10th Alabama alumnus on the Philadelphia Eagles’ roster, and he was Crimson Tide teammates with five of them.
“It just feels like home,” Metchie said on Tuesday. “The locker room just feels like home.”
After tight end Brevin Jordan sustained a season-ending knee injury at practice on Aug. 11, the Texans traded Metchie and a sixth-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft to Philadelphia for tight end Harrison Bryant and a fifth-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Metchie practiced with the Eagles for the first time on Tuesday.
“It was good,” Metchie said. “It was a big learning process. I mean, kind of two things are happening. One, it’s a mental learning process. You have to learn a new offense and just a new scheme, really the words. And then second, it’s just football. When you’re out there, football is football. You know, you run routes, you play offense against the defense.
“But it’s kind of those two things. One, you keep it football, and then on the other hand, on the mental aspect, you’re trying to learn a whole new concept, whole new lingo.”
Philadelphia offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo said Metchie’s familiarity with so many of the Eagles, particularly wide receiver DeVonta Smith, could accelerate his transition into the NFL team’s offense.
“I think the biggest thing is he has some relationships with guys on our team already,” Patullo said on Tuesday. “And so even yesterday, I walked through with him once he starts to know that, hey, this is how the offense is compared to where you were, he can start to understand, like, how the working order is of the verbiage and things like that going forward. And then he’ll have some of the guys to lean on a little bit differently like DeVonta, like, ‘Hey, what do I really need to know? How’s this work?’ And things like that. So I think there’s a little bit of a difference from that standpoint.
“But I do think there’s an accelerated, ramp-up version that you have to do for those guys just to get them to practice today. For example, we have to do some things just to see what we have, so I think for him, getting comfortable with the offense will take some time, but at least he’s got some guys that he can lean on to kind of get him through those little things.”
The trade is the latest upheaval for Metchie since his Alabama career ended with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in the 2021 SEC Championship Game.
Despite the knee injury, the Texans took Metchie in the second round of the 2022 NFL Draft after he caught 151 passes for 2,058 yards and 14 touchdowns in his final two seasons at Alabama. But just before the start of his first training camp, Metchie was diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia, and he spent his rookie season overcoming cancer instead of playing football.
“Just kind of being present with everything,” Metchie said of what he had learned from that experience. “Living the dream. Not worrying about a bunch of things you can’t control. I think that’s probably the biggest one. And understanding the things that you can control, the things you’re grateful for. …
“I don’t really ever think you go back to being the same person. I think you always change. It definitely took some time with all the health things, and you kind of have to build yourself back up. And I think I’m a different person. I think I’m a better player, and I think it all helped me for the better as a person and a player.”
Metchie said he had changed in several ways.
“I think maturity,” Metchie said. “Something like that happens, you develop a different sense of maturity just in the sense of life. You see that you can’t take too many things for granted and the most important thing is your health for you and your loved ones. And aside from that, everything else is just a blessing. …
“I think faster, for sure. I think more efficient. I think building your body back up, one from the ACL, and then being down because of cancer, you have a lot of time to really build yourself back up, so I think movement and functionality-wise, just a lot more efficient.”
In his delayed debut, Metchie had 16 receptions for 158 yards in 16 regular-season games and three receptions for 44 yards in two postseason contests in the 2023 campaign.
Last season, Metchie played in 13 regular-season games, including his first three NFL starts, and caught 24 passes for 254 yards and one touchdown. He followed that with six receptions for 63 yards in two playoff games.
Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said what Metchie had been through made it particularly difficult for him to part ways with the wide receiver.
“Trading Metchie was not easy to do,” Ryans said. “I really have a lot of love and affinity for Metchie. Everything that he’s been through in his professional career, the things that he had to battle through and push through and overcome is just very, you know, very fond of the guy, and he’s an inspiration to myself, inspiration to a lot of people to see what he was able to go through, overcome, get back to playing football.
“In this camp, I thought Metchie has looked the best he’s looked. He’s done a really nice job of preparing himself, putting himself in a really good spot, and he’s done everything we asked. Did everything the right way. It hurts to lose him, but I know he’s going on to a really good opportunity there in Philly, and he’ll continue to flourish and he’ll thrive in Philly because Metchie has the right mindset.”
The Eagles have two top-flight wide receivers already in Smith and AJ Brown.
“I’m just trying to bring something to the table,” Metchie said. “Try and contribute to a team that’s already so good. All those other things I don’t have any control over. All I really have control over is how I show up every day. …
“The noise goes up with moving, learning a new offense, a new team, getting ready for a season, so you just got to find a way to tune out the noise and keep the main thing the main thing as far as what’s important to you. And for me, that’s kind of getting acclimated as quickly as possible and getting ready to compete.”
The Eagles close their preseason schedule on Friday night against the New York Jets, then kick off the 2025 NFL season on Sept. 4 against the Dallas Cowboys.
That should be enough time with a “maximum-effort guy,” Patullo said.
“With us still having a couple weeks after this week, I think the timing’s pretty good,” Patullo said. “(Wide-receivers coach) Aaron Moorehead does a really good job. He’s been with us the whole time. He knows the system, knows where we’re going to go with things. And then he’ll be familiar with like DeVonta and some of the other guys to lean on. So I think from a standpoint of bringing a guy in, we’re in a pretty good spot where he can still pick it up and feel confident in what he can do.”
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at@AMarkG1.
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