Birds prepared for life after Sproles
PHILADELPHIA >> While Eagles fans fretted Thursday over the apparent loss of Darren Sproles and his re-injured (again) hamstring, the team was none the worse for wear thanks largely to Golden Tate, the accomplished third down receiver who a source said was fielding punts at practice along with Nelson Agholor.
In essence, Sproles isn’t much of a loss at all, considering he’s played just 29 snaps of the opener. At least not with Tate in the house. Even with a very limited knowledge of the offense, something is better than what the Eagles got from the 35-year-old Sproles, who sadly had nothing.
“I know he wants to be out there,” Wendell Smallwood said. “He tells us to keep holding it down, keep doing your job.”
The Eagles (4-4) need to at least establish the threat of the run to keep the front four of the Dallas Cowboys from twisting Carson Wentz the wrong way during their Sunday night game at Lincoln Financial Field. Make no mistake, defensive end Demarcus Lawrence (6.5 sacks) and tackle Tyrone Crawford (2.5) almost certainly have an eye on the Eagles’ injury report where right tackle Lane Johnson (MCL, ankle) again was limited at practice, and 36-year-old left tackle Jason Peters is nursing biceps and knee issues.
Of at least mild concern to the Eagles is Corey Clement, who was held out of practice Thursday due to illness. That leaves Smallwood and rookie Josh Adams as the only healthy backs the Eagles have to keep the Cowboys’ defense honest enough to not blitz every down.
Adams (6-2, 225) is coming off his best game of the season, having rushed for 61 yards on nine carries, including a 21-yard jaunt in the 24-18 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars before the bye. Adams also had an apparent fumble overturned by a replay review and failed to pick up a blitz up the middle that got Wentz sacked.
Smallwood had eight rushes for 24 yards and turned a screen pass into a 36-yard touchdown reception. He was better in blitz pickup which, you probably already know, was something the diminutive Sproles took so much pride in he’d text Smallwood with intelligence about where the blitzes were coming from at halftime of games. That was when Sproles (5-6, 190) had been idled by injury, of course.
“It’s huge having him as a person I can call and ask questions,” Smallwood said. “Look at his size. It shows size doesn’t mean a lot. Once you get next to him and you watch him practice and how hard he works, he’s about 6-8, 6-9 and 270 out there.”
Sproles won’t be playing Sunday. No one would be surprised if he’s placed on injured reserve, ending his season. With injuries at several positions, including cornerback, where Sidney Jones (hamstring) and Jalen Mills (foot) didn’t practice Thursday, the Eagles need the roster space.
What’s clear is the running backs have to step up, Tate or no Tate.
“Before Golden, we still had the guys to go deep,” Clement said. “We’ve just got to execute better. But I think adding Golden Tate does make it somewhat easier for Carson to have another read down the field. An explosive player like that, why wouldn’t you want him on your offense?”
Said Smallwood, “We’ve got to be the guys who do it just as good as him with no drop-off.
“It’s a tremendous challenge,” Smallwood added. “But (Sproles) helps us out tremendously. He helps us get our eyes in the right place. It’s big shoes to fill.”
If Sproles has played his last game, it will be with some regrets. He was just 467 yards from moving into fifth place on the all-time NFL list for all-purpose yards. Sproles has 19,216 such yards, trailing only Jerry Rice (23,546), Brian Mitchell (23,330), Walter Payton (21,803), Emmitt Smith (21,564) and Tim Brown (19,682).