PHILADELPHIA -- The Eagles were very excited about the 2014 NFL draft class, especially because they were looking to take advantage of the deep pool of wide receiver talent.

They traded their first-round pick to Cleveland, which used it on quarterback Johnny Manziel. With the 26th pick, the Eagles could have taken several receivers. One was Kelvin Benjamin, who caught two touchdown passes against them for the Carolina Panthers Monday night.

The Eagles took linebacker Marcus Smith two picks before Carolina plucked Benjamin. Smith has barely gotten on the field this season. That would sound like a typical tale of poor drafting, except for this. In the second round, the Eagles selected Vanderbilt wide receiver Jordan Matthews. Matthews also caught two touchdown passes Monday night, giving him five touchdowns on the season.

"Jordan just finds a way to get open," Eagles quarterback Mark Sanchez said after the Eagles' 45-21 victory over Benjamin and the Panthers. "It was kind of him and (tight end Brent) Celek tonight, it looked like. That's at least the way it showed up in the stats. But that's because you have guys out on the edge like (Riley Cooper) and (Jeremy Maclin) that can run and can blow the top off a defense and scare guys with their speed and their route running ability. Jordan had a heck of a night."

Matthews caught four passes for 73 yards on the Eagles' longest scoring drive of the game. The last was a 13-yard pass from Sanchez that gave the Eagles a 24-7 lead.

"It's just Coach Kelly calling plays and getting me in position to go out there and make plays," Matthews said. "Mark trusted me and gave me opportunities. When you have those situations, when your coach and quarterback both trust you and have your back, you have to have theirs, too. I knew I had to go out there and make some plays. That is what I tried my best to do."

Chip Kelly said the Panthers defense was focused first on stacking the box and stopping the Eagles' running game. Its second priority was to cover outside receivers Maclin and Cooper.

"It's just matchups," Kelly said. "We felt like we could exploit some things inside. I think our tight ends, Celek and (Zach) Ertz, had a good day inside. We thought we matched up really well if they were going to play us in man. They played a ton of man early. So we felt those inside receivers had really good chances in the matchups."

Celek caught five passes for 116 yards. Matthews caught seven for 138 yards and the two touchdowns.

It was Matthews' best game yet, not least because he was able to pick up significant yardage after the catch.

"I think Jordan's getting better as he gets more comfortable in terms of what we're doing," Kelly said. "He still made a few mistakes out there, a couple wrong assignments at times. But he's starting to feel more comfortable out there. I think you saw his speed a few times there when we got him matched up on some of those shallow crosses where he really took off and ran. We're finally getting what we had seen from him in college."