Eagles Missed Out on Adding Veteran RB

Fantasy football alert.

Those who are ground floor on the Miles Sanders’ hype should consider a few Doug Pederson bread crumbs left over the past two days.

The Eagles coach discussed the running back position on a video conference call with local media earlier this week then admitted that Philadelphia attempted to sign a veteran RB to complement Sanders on the team’s flagship radio station, but the target “slipped through our fingers."

“We had the opportunity to possibly grab a player and he slipped through our fingers,” Pederson admitted when talking with Angelo Cataldi.

Pederson was referring to Carlos Hyde, the big 230-pound chain-mover who rushed for over 1,000 yards in Houston last season and signed a one-year deal in Seattle that could net him as much as $4 million with incentives.

The Eagles wanted to stay near the veteran minimum for an RB2 an NFL source told SI.com when describing the Hyde sweepstakes.

Pederson, meanwhile, explained the Eagles are still on the hunt at the position on the Zoom call.

“Right now, we're going to continue to look and see if we can add value, add depth, add competition to that room,” said Pederson. “But we are very comfortable, and excited about Miles, what he did in his rookie season, what he can do now moving forward.”

Sanders is clearly going to be the top back when it comes to the RB rotation, but Pederson has always preferred a committee approach.

“You know that the running back position for us has been sort of by committee,” said the coach. “It's been two, three guys each and every week that not only help us in the run game but can also help us on special teams and that's also a big part of this.”

For now, the Eagles have Boston Scott, Corey Clement, Elijah Holyfield, and undrafted rookies Michael Warren and Adrian Killins behind Sanders.

“I'm looking forward again to getting these young guys in the building, getting them on the grass, and showing us what they can do,” the coach said.”... Boston Scott came on at the end of the season for us and performed well. Corey had a heck of a year in 2017 for us as a rookie. It’s unfortunate again, but he's put himself in a position to come back and help us through injury.”

The Eagles have also been linked to veterans Devonta Freeman and LeSean McCoy.

The former is believed to be out of the Eagles price range and actually wanted more money from the Seahawks than Hyde got while a reunion with the aging McCoy, the franchise’s all-time leading rusher, might be a bit of a redundancy because he’s got similar traits as a player to Sanders.

John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John every Monday and Friday on SIRIUSXM’s Tony Bruno Show with Harry Mayes, and every Tuesday and Thursday with Eytan Shander on SBNation Radio. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen

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