His head is spinning, John Metchie III admits, and that's understandable.
One day he was a Houston Texan and then, boom, he's traded and on his way to Philadelphia. It's the nature of the business, but that doesn't make things any easier when something like a trade comes so suddenly.
Metchie, if you are familiar at all with his story, has faced far greater challenges than being traded late in Training Camp from one conference to the other in the NFL. He was a star player at Alabama before suffering a torn ACL and coming back from that, and then, just a year later, learning that he had leukemia and facing something far more serious than his standing on the depth chart.
He is here to "show up every day," and help a team that is already so strong. Metchie describes himself as a "dynamic" receiver who can "run all routes," so the next step is to learn the offense in very short order, prepare as best he can for the immediate period of time, and maybe get into the preseason finale on Friday night against the New York Jets and see how it goes.
The Eagles acquired Metchie in a trade that became official on Monday afternoon, sending a 2026 fifth-round pick and tight end Harrison Bryant to Houston for a 2026 sixth-round pick and Metchie, a wide receiver who was a second-round draft choice by the Texans in 2022 after a marvelous career at Alabama. First came the knee injury, suffered in the SEC Championship Game of his final collegiate season. Then came the illness.
And then, two seasons in Houston where Metchie worked to find his place in the Texans' offense.
Now, Philadelphia, joining a loaded wide receiver room that includes A.J. Brown, his former Alabama teammate and great friend DeVonta Smith, and Jahan Dotson, who knew Metchie from way back in their high school days.
"Just kind of being present with everything," Metchie said when asked about the perspective he has on the last three years of his life. "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. Things like that."