If you’re looking for a correlation between winning in the NFL and the length of subsequent careers from players off those teams, it’s going to be a pretty simple one. Play for a great team and more teams want you. Play for a losing team and not so much.
Former Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Britain Covey is one example of this, going from undrafted in 2022 to leading the NFL in punt return yards in 2023 to a Super Bowl champion in 2024 to a free agent contract with the Los Angeles Rams in 2025.
“The Rams have added another player to their receiver group,” Pro Football Talk’s Josh Alper wrote. “The team announced that they have signed Britain Covey as a free agent. It’s a one-year deal for Covey and no other terms of the pact have been announced.”
Covey was part of the Eagles’ Super Bowl winning team in 2024 and played in 2 Super Bowls in 3 seasons in Philadelphia — he said goodbye to his old team in an Instagram post.
“Can’t put into words how much Philly has meant to me and my little family,” Covey wrote, accompanied by pictures of himself with his wife and son.
Undrafted After Record Setting Pac-12 Career
Covey was an electric punt returner and wide receiver at the University of Utah and a 3-time All-Pac 12 pick who finished his career with 4,241 all-purpose yards and the school’s career record with 1,092 punt return yards. He capped his career in dramatic fashion, with a 97-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and 208 all-purpose yards in the Rose Bowl against Ohio State.
While Covey ran the 40-yard dash in 4.50 seconds at Utah’s Pro Day, the thing that kept him from being selected in the 2022 NFL draft was his size — he’s one of the smallest players in NFL history at just 5-foot-8 and 169 pounds.
Thanks to a 2-year mission with the Mormon church, he was also already 25 years old when he signed with the Eagles as an undrafted free agent.
“Covey’s size and age will work against him, but he plays bigger than he measures,” NFL draft analyst Lance Zierlein wrote in 2022. “He’s a talented punt returner who can make plays as a receiver after the catch, as well … His scrappiness and talent as a return man could give him an outside shot to compete for a roster spot.”
Covey Becomes NFL Leader in Punt Return Yards
Covey made the 53-man roster for the Eagles in 2022 and turned himself into a key special teams player from the jump — he led the NFL with 417 punt return yards and averaged 14.3 yards per return in 2023.
Covey had 1,007 return yards in his first 3 seasons, but only 46 yards in 2024, when a neck injury limited him to just 5 regular-season games before he was placed on injured reserve on December 28.
If Covey is truly healthy, there’s a good chance he could displace Xavier Smith as the Rams’ main punt returner. Smith finished with just 149 yards on 16 returns last season in his first season with the team but set up a game-winning field goal with a 38-yard punt return against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 3.
