Nick Sirianni hints at how he will use Eagles running back fleet originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
One of the most intriguing questions facing the 2023 Eagles is how Nick Sirianni and new offensive coordinator Brian Johnson will deploy the Eagles’ new stable of running backs.
One thing is certain: it will look terribly different.
For the past four years, Miles Sanders has been the Eagles’ bell cow, and while he’s missed a lot of time with injuries, he’s been the clear No. 1 since mid-2019, when Jordan Howard’s season ended with a shoulder injury.
From then until the end of last year’s regular season, Sanders made 633 carries and Boston Scott had the second-most on the team, with 259 — most while Sanders was away.
Only three times during Sanders’ four-year stint with the Eagles has there been a regular-season game where he had at least 10 carries and another running back had more. All three were in 2019, including two in the first month of Sanders’ career.
So for about a year and a half under Doug Pederson and the last two years under Nick Sirianni, Sanders has been the undisputed Guy.
Then everything changed.
Kenny Gainwell supplanted Sanders as playoff leader, the Eagles made no attempt to re-sign Sanders when he hit free agency, Sanders signed a four-year, $25 million contract with the Panthers, and the Eagles quickly added veterans Rashaad Perry and D’Andre Swift to the running backs roster.
What does all this mean?
Nobody knows.
Even Sirianni.
“I’m okay with a committee, I’m okay with a guy taking charge too,” he said in a recent interview. “I really am. Whatever works, whatever goes (good).
“We’ll say sometimes we’re going to go here and then a guy gets hot and we’ll roll with him. Like Kenny in the playoffs a bit last year. He got more touches than he had because he ran it really well.
“I’m happy with everything working and playing the best guys. I like the depth that we have to be able to rotate guys and keep guys fresh. I like when you have a guy who can do it all, I like when you have a guy you can segment. There are so many different ways to do it.
Swift is the most experienced of the group and the best receiver.
Penny has that monster 5.7 career running average, tied for the highest in NFL history by a running back.
Gainwell is young and versatile and is coming off a promising post-season.
And then there’s Boston Scott, who plays sparingly but is unstoppable from short range and has 17 limited-duty touchdowns over the past four years.
All four backs have had some great moments in their careers. None have ever been ahead of a full season.
Swift has rushed for more than 500 yards every year in his career, but never more than 617. Penny rushed for 749 yards and an NFL record 6.3 yards per carry in 2021, but has played in just eight other games since 2020. Gainwell averages just 3 ½ carries per game in the regular season. Scott always seems to produce when called but has never rushed for 400 yards.
There’s a lot of talent here. But also so many questions. Can Swift and Penny stay healthy? Can Gainwell play a bigger role? Where does Scott fit in?
Which makes it even more intriguing that only Gainwell is signed beyond 2023.
The Eagles used a committee of running backs with brilliant results in the 2017 playoffs with Jay Ajayi, Corey Clement and LeGarrette Blount combining for 556 yards from scrimmage, including 255 in the Super Bowl. The last time the Eagles used a rotation for an entire regular season was in 2016 with Ryan Mathews, Wendell Smallwood and Darren Sproles, although that was really the result of injuries.
Why was the Blount/Ajayi/Clement rotation so effective? Because they were all so different, and the defenses never knew what was coming. Blount was a power runner, Ajayi quick and elusive, Clement a terrific receiver and a tough runner.
That’s why the old three-headed monster from 2003 did so well. Brian Westbrook, Duce Staley and Correll Buckhalter all had different strengths and complemented each other so well.
Sirianni’s plan?
Each game can be different. Each conduct can be different.
He will invent this as he goes along depending on the opponent, the score, the down and the distance and who has the hot hand.
“I guess that’s how it is with receivers and tight ends,” Sirianni said. “You have certain visions of routes you want to go or you know how to attack a defense (with), and you don’t need a guy to do every one of them – you wish all the guys could do every one of them – but you just need them to, ‘Hey, how can we do this, this, this, this and that?’ Well, he can do this, he can do that, he can do this, this guy can do that too.
“It’s the same with the ball carriers. So, however, it happens. And if you don’t have a section where they can do that, you cross that part out of your playbook and maybe add something different.
“But no matter how it happens, I don’t care how it happens as long as those boxes can be ticked.”