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The Eagles and Jalen Hurts successfully spread the football among their ‘Batmen’ and offensive weapons

Quez Watkins hauled in a deep pass from Hurts to score a touchdown against the Vikings as Eagles receivers not named A.J. Brown got their share of targets on Monday night.

Eagles wide receiver Quez Watkins runs with the football against the Minnesota Vikings on Monday.
Eagles wide receiver Quez Watkins runs with the football against the Minnesota Vikings on Monday.Read moreYong Kim / Staff Photographer

Jalen Hurts told Quez Watkins to be ready.

The Eagles offense broke the huddle with a deep shot called midway through the second quarter of the team’s 24-7 win over the Minnesota Vikings on Monday night. Watkins was to run a go route while Dallas Goedert ran a 15-yard out on the same side. The route combination forced Minnesota safety Camryn Bynum to choose between the two — either he’d stay with Watkins or jump Goedert’s out route.

He chose wrong.

Watkins caught a 53-yard touchdown pass on the play to give the Eagles a two-score lead, but the receiver revealed that Hurts made up his mind well before Bynum left Watkins unaccompanied downfield.

“The safety had bit on the out route, and I just kept going,” Watkins said. “Regardless of if the safety was there or not, Jalen told me he was throwing it, so I gave it all I had.”

After a season-opening win in which A.J. Brown was heavily featured, the Eagles’ passing offense was much more balanced against the Vikings. Watkins didn’t have any targets on 27 routes run in Week 1 but had two catches for 69 yards and a score on Monday.

DeVonta Smith didn’t log a catch on four targets against the Lions but was implemented early and often against the Vikings, finishing with seven catches for 80 yards. Goedert also had five catches for 82 yards.

» READ MORE: Eagles’ Jalen Hurts claims the title of No. 1 quarterback in NFC East ... with a bullet

Watkins, who walked into the stadium before the game with Smith and wore a T-shirt with his fellow receiver’s name and image on it during warmups, said the entire group felt good about the target distribution on Monday.

“That’s the beauty of it,” he said. “That’s the beauty of this game, when everybody is touching the ball, everybody’s smiling and having fun, it’s exciting.”

Coming out of the Lions game, Eagles coach Nick Sirianni and offensive coordinator Shane Steichen made a point of saying Smith needed a bigger role in the offense.

Eagles cornerback Darius Slay even echoed the message, calling each of the team’s top three receivers a different iteration of “Batman” before reiterating that the receiving corps has “no Robins.”

“I know you all see him with the dark visor, he just looks like a swole Batman,” Slay said, referring to Brown. “You all can’t tell me he doesn’t look like a swole Batman. DeVonta is a skinny Batman. Quez is a fast Batman. We’ve got three Batmans on the team — one swole, one skinny, one fast.”

Smith seemed unbothered by his lack of involvement and said his play could have been better last week. Still, the Eagles coaches called the second-year wideout’s number on the first play of the opening drive for a 4-yard completion.

Smith also had a handful of chunk plays, including back-to-back plays in which he tallied two catches for 35 yards.

”Like I said, when the ball comes to you, you have to make the most of your opportunity,” Smith said. “So just going out there, us as an offense, executing, everybody got their opportunities and everybody made the most of them.”

Even with the more democratic approach, Brown still had his moments in prime time. He finished with five catches for 69 yards, including a 23-yard gain when the receiver gained separation on a slant route and got about 10 extra yards after the catch.

Brown led the team with eight targets, but he accounted for 41% of the team’s targeted air yards, down from 71% against the Lions, according to Next Gen Stats.

“We’ve got a lot of playmakers on offense,” Brown said. “Last week was my week, and here we are today, Smitty went off, Quez had a touchdown, Dallas had a good day, and Miles [Sanders] ran the ball good. We’ve got a lot of playmakers. I think the toughest job is on the OC, Shane. He’s got to call up plays for everybody and get everybody involved. He has a tough job.”