Healthy Miles Sanders Rising in Ranks of Rushing Leaders
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PHILADELPHIA – Of all the superlatives you can lay at the feet of Eagles running back Miles Sanders, perhaps the best is that he is healthy.
A month into the fourth and final season of his rookie contract, Sanders has stayed free of any nagging injuries that limited him to 12 games in each of the past two seasons.
Sure, it’s still early, but Sanders is intent on keeping it this way.
“I’m doing a great job of taking care of my body as much as possible,” he said in the locker room on Thursday. “I don’t necessarily feel different. It just comes with experience I guess. I feel I’m sharper on a lot of things.
"I could be even sharper, but this year, I don’t know, I feel like this year I want to put on a good display of who I can be, who I could have been this whole time. Forget my numbers, this is the most excited I’ve been since I’ve been here. It’s been a great start and I hope we can keep it going.”
Sanders may want to forget the numbers, but they bear mentioning.
He is third in the league in rushing with 356 yards and is averaging 4.5 yards per carry.
He has a way to go to surpass the two RBs in front of him – New York’s Saquon Barkley (463) and Cleveland’s Nick Chubb (459) – but with the best offensive line in football, he could end up ahead of either one of them before long.
Especially if Sanders has another career game in his future like the one he had against the Jaguars, when he ran for 134 on 27 carries, which were both career highs.
One thing different about Sanders this year is that he’s doing more than just spending time with his position group.
During special teams portions of practice, he heads over to where the offensive line is being drilled by line coach Jeff Stoutland.
“What I’m trying to do is have the best running game ever,” he said. “…He’s yelling of course, but I’m trying to listen to him to see what he’s teaching them just to try to make the run game better and understand what they do and that will make the runs more crisp.”
Sanders has also continued something he began doing last year, and that is catching passes from RB coach Jemal Singleton.
“We did a little last year but keeping that going because we pass the ball a lot,” he said, “so you never know if I can stay in there for a third down. I’m trying to be ready for everything.”
Sanders also had two catches for 22 yards on three targets against the Jaguars and now has eight receptions for 35 yards.
He won’t ever catch 50 passes for 509 yards as he did in his 2019 rookie season, but whatever he can give the Eagles in the air is only beneficial for the team.
It’s the rushing yards that will help this team greatly, and to make that happen, to secure his first 1,000-yard rushing season, Sanders must stay healthy.
So far so good on that front.
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
