Eagles RB Roulette: Philly Searches For Miles Sanders Replacement
After day one of training camp, the Philadelphia Eagles have few questions on the offensive side of the ball.
However, the departure of Pro Bowl running back Miles Sanders, who signed with the Carolina Panthers this offseason, has created a void of uncertainty in the backfield.
Although the team brought in D'Andre Swift and Rashaad Penny this offseason to potentially help fill Sanders' shoes, coach Nick Sirianni is giving the entire position group a chance to earn a role on the team.
"Everybody has an opportunity to earn roles, and looking forward to watching that position group battle because there's a lot of good options there. They'll rotate throughout," Sirianni said.
Sirianni also stated that his entire running back unit will have a chance to work with the starters as they rotate among different groups during practice.
"You're going to see Boston [Scott] in with the ones; you're going to see Kenny [Gainwell] with the ones; you're going to see Penny in with the ones; you're going to see D'Andre; you're going to see Trey Sermon in with the ones; you're going to see him in with the twos and you're going to see him in with the threes," Sirianni said.
Additionally, Sirianni emphasized that the distribution of running backs among different groups shouldn't be over-analyzed. He wants all his players to receive the proper practice opportunities.
"We don't care where those are happening," he said. "They all need to get reps and they all will get reps with different groups. I wouldn't look too much into who's with the ones, who's with the twos, who's with the threes, because they'll all be mixing in to make sure they're getting the reps."
While Sirianni doesn't have a firm No. 1 starter on the team as training camp kicks off, general manager Howie Roseman acknowledges that it was a hard decision not to bring back last year's leading rusher.
"Obviously, Miles was a great player for us," Roseman said. "Miss him, wish him the best in Carolina. For where we were this year, we had to make some hard decisions. That was one of them."
While Roseman didn't re-sign Sanders, he would not be against giving a running back a long-term contract in the future. However, he is excited about the current group they have and was happy that he was able to bring in Swift on the last year of his rookie deal and sign Penny to a one-year contract in free agency.
"I think the way we look at our running back room, it just worked out that a lot of these guys are on one-year deals, but we value the running back position," Roseman said. "Really excited about the guys that we have here, and I don't think that for us, we would be against signing running backs to long-term deals in that situation, and we have those conversations."
Roseman isn't the only one excited about the running back unit in the Eagles' building, as offensive tackle Lane Johnson complimented the position group.
"I gotta go look (at tape from practice) to be honest," Johnson said. "Saw some of those guys play earlier in my career. Saw Swift last year in Detroit and he beat us up pretty good in the first half. We have a lot of great backs, Boston back there, Gainwell, but after the first couple weeks I’ll have more answers on that. It’s a good problem to have."
As the Eagles aim to get back to the Super Bowl for the second straight season, it becomes crucial that they maintain the production level following the departure of Sanders. Replicating Sanders' production will be vital to the Eagles' success this season.
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