You’re Grounded
Reasons to wonder about running game
PHILADELPHIA >> The most endearing charm of the Eagles organization, at least since Buddy Ryan looked at an inept group of players and announced that it would own the Cowboys for years, is that it never lacks doubt that it has everything figured out.
With good teams and bad, when others have agreed and when they have reacted with shudders, for years and decades, the Eagles have been comfortable in their own personnel. And this season, they were never more comfortable with their running backs.
They believed they were deep. They were convinced they were versatile. They had some youth, but they had achievement too. There were backs who could go outside and backs who could slice through the middle. There were pass-catchers, red-zone terrors, blockers, sprinters and All-Stars just waiting to be elected.
So thick were they in the backfield, the story on cutdown day wasn’t which players survived, but which football-carrying artistes were squeezed out. Josh Adams, who led the team in rushing last year? Gone. Wendell Smallwood, a contributor to the Super Bowl championship team of 2017? Sorry.
“Good players,” Howie Roseman would say. “And I think it’s just a testament to what we have in that room right now. We’re really excited about that.”
That was the Eagles’ story, and they can be proven correct. But if it happens that they over-valued their backs and the personnel department that decided they were all so special, it would not be the first time. Nor would it do much for that championship-readiness script.
In a 24-20 loss Sunday in Atlanta, the Eagles averaged 2.5 yards per carry. Every game has its own personality, and a slow start forced Doug Pederson to order more passing in
2.5 yards per carry. Every game has its own personality, and a slow start forced Doug Pederson to order more passing in the second half, and the Falcons were known to be strong in the middle, and it’s only one game. But by the time the Eagles rolled back to the NewsControl Compound this week, they were faced with the possibility that they didn’t have the gold standard of running back stables at all.
There was Miles Sanders, a highly regarded second-round pick who’d shown well enough in camp for the Eagles to make Brian Westbrook and LeSean McCoy noises. But the short version of his college career story was that he had two ordinary years at Penn State, followed by one of excellence. And why did he have two ordinary years? Because he was not gifted enough, apparently, to beat out Saquon Barkley.
So it was Sunday that the back who played behind the Giants’ back in college rushed 10 times for 28 yards.
There was Jordan Howard, known as the Bulldozer, who had two fourfigure rushing seasons in Chicago followed by a 935-yard effort. When he became an Eagle, there was appropriate enthusiasm. He was a former Pro Bowl player who’d averaged more than 1,000 yards rushing in his three years. Yet, there was this mystery: Why did Chicago punt such a talent for a conditional sixth-round draft choice?
So it was Sunday that the player the Bears clearly didn’t envision as another Gale Sayers would rush eight times for 18 yards.
There was Darren Sproles, three times a Pro Bowl player, high among the better change-of-pace backs in his generation. But injuries limited him to a total of nine games over the previous two seasons, and he was 36 years old.
So it was Sunday that the player the Eagles have been waiting for years to return to his career peak didn’t make one carry against the Falcons and caught two passes for a total of five yards.
There was Corey Clement, a former walk-on whose contributions to the recent world championship were valuable. But that team was thriving behind backs LeGarrette Blount and Jay Ajayi, proven players still performing at a very high level. Sunday, Clement injured his shoulder.
Yet there was Roseman, touting his 2019 backs at the close of training camp, convinced of their greatness: “Jordan has had a tremendous offseason, and you see his vision, his instincts, his power. Miles really has come on. It’s good getting Darren back with just what he can do, obviously in the passing game as a returner and with this veteran leadership. And Corey can play all four downs and he’s a heck of a special teams player and he looks 100 percent.
“We like how all those guys play off each other.”
It was a responsible plan. And there was plenty to appreciate in a 32-27 opening day victory over Washington. Though Sanders looked ordinary, Sproles averaged 5.2 yards on nine carries. And when it was time to burn time late, Howard was as advertised, rushing six times for 44 yards. So it is too soon to dismiss the running game as average.
At his age, they had to consider the possibility that Sproles was no longer a Pro Bowl threat. Howard is not much of a pass catcher, which limits his value. Every team has a third-team back like Clement. But the Eagles need Sanders to mount a fringe Pro Bowl candidacy were they to compete at a championship level.
“It is all part of the process,” offensive coordinator Mike Groh said Tuesday. “There are some moments where he seems to split the ground and get north. And he can’t outrun everybody in this league like he might have been able to do in the past. That’s the learning experience of a young player. And we know he’s going to learn and be better going forward.
“We’ve got a guy and he’s going to be a really good player for us.” All right. But Sanders wasn’t great Sunday. Nor was any other Eagles back. And while the sport has changed and the importance of the running game has been muffled, that was not how they had it figured at all.