The Eagles running back situation concerns me more than any other position on the Birds roster, other than maybe their punt returner. Seriously, I’m very concerned about the Eagles running back situation because of the injury history of their best running back Miles Sanders. The former Penn State ball carrier is the most talented of their trio running backs, but he continues to let injuries keep him sidelined much too often. He’s not durable.
I think there’s a reason to be concerned about it because number 26 hasn’t played on the level of his talent. He is one of the most talented running backs that I have ever seen. He can take the ball to the house at any time. He’s very difficult to tackle out in the open field and he has good size, standing 5’11” in height and weighing 212 pounds. If he plays on his talent level the Eagles will be averaging 35 or more points a game.
Sanders is back right now but we can’t depend on that. I think that’s the reason that Eagles GM Howie Roseman continues to stock up on running backs. I don’t think he’s confident about Sanders and his health and neither am I.
I think Boston Scott is the most dependable of the Birds running backs. He’s consistent from a health standpoint and he’s been consistent from an assignment perspective. Scott has been the only Eagles running back they can count on this preseason.
Kenneth Gainwell has not had a good training camp. He didn’t take the step forward that everybody was anticipating in his second year. If anything he’s taken a step back. Gainwell was dropping passes, missing blocks and struggling throughout training camp. He’s got to get more focused going forward because he will be on the field on key third down plays with games on the line. I think he’s capable of turning it around, but he’s got to do it.
The Eagles have claimed running back Troy Sermon off waivers from the San Francisco Forty-Niners. Sermon is a former Alabama running back, so of course he’s very familiar with Jalen Hurts. He’s big and he’s got talent. Right now he’s the Birds biggest running back standing six-foot and weighing about 215 pounds. He’s had some problems becoming the player that the 49ers thought he would be.
The Eagles are going to try to develop him. In someways he situation sounds like Sanders in that he hasn’t lived up to his talent. The Niners say he hasn’t been consistent. They say he hasn’t been fundamentally sound. We’re going to see where he’s going to go in his career because he’s a very young player. He was drafted in the 2021 draft in the third round, that’s pretty amazing. You’ve got a player who was drafted in 2021 in the 3rd round and the 49ers are already letting him go. That doesn’t speak well of his production.
The Eagles have also signed La’Mical Perine to the practice squad. He’s another running back who has been a major disappointment to the team that drafted him. He was a fourth round pick by the New York Jets in the 2020 draft. He hasn’t done very much in his career. The Birds have signed him because of his potential. Like Sermon, they’re signing him because of the potential they saw in him when he was drafted.
The Birds have also signed running back Kennedy Brooks to the practice squad. Like Sermon, Brooks played with Hurts in college. They played together for Oklahoma in the 2019 season. Brooks gained over 1000 yards in that season and he ran for over 1200 yards in 2021 for the Sooners. Like Sermon, he’s got good size 5’11” and 215 pounds with good speed.
So the Birds have a total of six running backs, three on their active roster and three on their practice squad. The word that comes up when you think of most of them is “Potential”. Birds head coach Nick Sirianni and his staff must find a way to turn all this Potential into Production. Unfortunately for the Birds, they don’t have a very long time to make the change.
