Birds boss Pederson says Blount is still in his plans
Pederson dismisses report the Birds are considering cutting veteran
PHILADELPHIA » The struggle led to a concern, the concern to a mania, the mania to a raging rumor that Doug Pederson insists is wrong.
LeGarrette Blount, Pederson insisted Tuesday, will be a major part of the Eagles running game. He won’t be cut, waived or blamed for preseason losses.
He’s staying.
“The guy is a beast of a runner,” the Eagles’ coach said, after a joint practice with the Miami Dolphins at the NovaCare Complex. “I don’t know what else to tell you. He had 18 touchdowns, 15 in the red zone last year. That’s the kind of production you saw, and the kind of running that he can do.”
With the Eagles struggling to establish a running attack through (parts of) two preseason games, reports bubbled that Blount was in some danger of being a late training camp roster casualty. By Tuesday, when the Birds essentially closed training camp for another year, Pederson seemed as baffled by that idea as he was dismissive.
The Blount chatter was based on multiple kinds of numbers, particularly those he has not produced in the two Grapefruit League games. The 30-year-old, ninth-year pro has carried the ball nine times for 17 yards, a 1.9-yard average. Nine of his yards came on one play. He has not scored a touchdown, in the red zone or any zone of any hue.
Compound that with strong training-camp efforts from rookie walkon Corey Clement, who leads the Birds in rushing, Blount’s $2.8 million salary, his reported weight clause (which, if only to the casually trained eye could be a challenge), normal rosterspace crowding and the fact that Blount missed some work for personal reasons early in camp, and the calculus began to make sense.
But Pederson all but eliminated that discussion with a mini-testimonial to his projected feature back.
“Listen, we are not ‘gameplanning’ these games,” he said. “So it’s really difficult to go into a game and say, ‘This is best for this.’ We are trying to execute our plays. And as coaches, we may be doing our players an injustice, putting them in that situation. But you’ve seen what he’s done these last couple of days and I’m excited he’s here.”
And … big finish … “He’s going to be a big part of our offense.”
That established, the Eagles, as a group, have basically heard enough about a running game that has sputtered in two public outings. They point out that when they play the Dolphins in a preseason gimmick Thursday, their preferred offensive line will be together for the first time in a game situation. And they have let it leak for the past two days that they believe that their backs performed well in the controlled practices with the Dolphins.
Indeed, offfensive coordinator Frank Reich, for one, was quick to upgrade the run-game analysis from satisfactory to exciting.
“Absolutely,” he said. “I think we have one of the better offensive lines in the NFL. We’ve got two outstanding tackles. We’ve got good players inside. I feel exceedingly good about our running game.”
It being August, and the games meaning little, the coaches can argue as much without massive public blow-back. But Pederson plans to play his No. 1 offensive unit at least until halftime Thursday, and perhaps beyond. Three more quarters of Blount being unable to rush around the end may not be the best for the rungame’s image. And sometime in the next two games, even Reich acknowledges, the Birds must show more of a consistent ground attack.
“No doubt,” he said Monday. “I thought today we saw some good things on the practice field. We worked on some things. We worked hard on getting a couple things right against the Dolphins. I think they looked good today. I think our backs looked good. It looked like everyone had pop. We’d like to see that show up on game day.”
By the Sept. 10 opener, the Birds can expect the usual change-of-pace boost from Darren Sproles, who has yet to play in a preseason game, and a similar contribution from rookie Donnel Pumphrey. Wendell Smallwood, at some point expected to be the Birds’ feature back, is fighting back from early-camp hamstring trouble. Clement has shown potential. And then there is Blount, a reigning Super Bowl champion, a point-producer believed capable of making the Eagles different and, as such, better this season.
“We feel good about it,” said Blount of the running game, after a 20-16 preseason victory over Buffalo. “There is nothing that we are doubting or that we feel like we are lacking. I feel like we have all the pieces that we need to be a good running team.
“Obviously, we haven’t been game-planning anybody. We haven’t been going into details about what we are going to do in the run game and stuff. We are just trying to get out there and make sure that things are going to be clicking on all cylinders by the time we start that first game.”
And Blount — if Pederson and Reich are to be believed — will be there for that opener.
“Here’s a guy who scored 18 touchdowns last year,” Reich said. “What can you say about that? That’s hard to do. You know what he can do. He’s a veteran player. He’s tough. He has good vision for a big man. He can move. He can cut. As things go forward, you look to find the plays that are best suited for him and you focus on those things and let him do his thing. Because when he does his thing, it results in a lot of touchdowns, and that’s what we’ve seen in his career.”