Reflecting on Jay Ajayi's "Super" Role from 2017
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Howie Roseman made all the right moves in 2017.
Every free agent the Eagles general manager signed that year turned to gold, from receivers Alshon Jeffery and Torey Smith to running back LeGarrette Blount to defensive end Chris Long to cornerback Patrick Robinson.
His final touch was acquiring Jay Ajayi at the trade deadline from the Miami Dolphins.
The Super Bowl LII title was still weeks away when Roseman agreed, on Halloween, to send a fourth-round pick in the 2018 draft to South Florida for a running back whose knees, as it turned out, had a limited shelf life.
The expiration date on those knees reached its term in 2019 when Ajayi toted the ball for the final time.
Still just 28, he announced his retirement and will serve as Eagles Legends Community Honorary Captain of the Game for the regular-season finale against Dallas at Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday night.
"The Linc is a special place," Ajayi said on the team’s website. "The fans, they're amazing. They either love you or they hate you, but they're going to give you what it is. And that's what I liked, keeping it real with me 100 percent of the time. I loved it there.
"And I know it's going to be a crazy game. You've got the 'Boys coming up and I know we've already made (the playoffs) but we've got work to do. We're not done. So, I'm going to be there cheering my guys on, getting the stadium hyped up."
Jay Ajayi (left) and LeGarrette Blount moments after the Eagles captured their first=ever Super Bowl title in February of 2018.
Ed Kracz
In 2017, Ajayi was exactly what the Eagles’ offense needed to make its championship turn – pun intended.
The Eagles had struggled to run the ball in the weeks leading up the trade, consummated on Halloween.
Jason Peters had torn an MCL/ACL in Week 7 and was out for the year and Blount had been held to three yards per carry in the previous two games.
"I knew that coming to this team, my job was to help win the Super Bowl,” Ajayi told the Eagles’ website. “That's what Howie told me when they called me. That's what they brought me in for, to help do whatever I can to help get this team a Super Bowl win.”
Ajayi wasted little time elevating the offense. In his Eagles debut, he ran eight times for 77 yards and a touchdown in a 51-23 rout of the Denver Broncos, which was the team’s seventh straight win.
In seven regular-season games, he ran 70 times for 408 yards (5.8 yards per carry) with 10 catches for 91 yards and another score. He would play only seven more games in two more seasons.
In the three 2017 playoff games, Ajayi ran for 184 yards on 42 carries, including nine runs for 57 yards in the Eagles’ 41-33 defeat of Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl.
"With the playoffs, you have to raise the level of play,” he said on the team's site. “I think we all did that, we all banded around each other. Especially in our running back room. Getting the win against Tom Brady, it was like us against the world. Just special moments. Moments I won't forget. I'm a champion.
“We brought the first Super Bowl to Philly, and I'm a part of that. That's a very important time in my life. I'm grateful for everything, for what Philly did for me."
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
