'It Was Exciting:' Eagles' Got A First Look At Extra Juice In The Backfield

PHILADELPHIA - When the Eagles acquired Tank Bigsby from Jacksonville in September for two 2026 Day 3 draft picks, the spin around the team was that the Auburn product had a significant upside as a kickoff returner, even though there was limited demonstrated performance to back up that evaluation.

During Bigsby’s first practice in Philadelphia, he flubbed his first attempt at snaring a kickoff, and that proved to be a bit of foreshadowing, especially when Joshua Karty and his “dirty” kickoffs arrived on the schedule.

Bigsby has enough troubles that by Week 6, in a disappointing loss to the New York Giants, head coach Nick Sirianni angrily reacted over another handling issue by Bigsby, and the third-year back hasn’t been seen on kickoffs since.

That might have been a blessing in disguise because the Eagles shifted Bigsby’s return duties alongside Will Shipley to natural returner Xavier Gipson and pulled the trigger on making the 2023 third-round pick the main backup to Saquon Barkley.

An explosive 11-yard run at Minnesota was the tip of the iceberg, and Bigsby went off for 104 yards on just nine carries in the Week 8 rematch against the Giants, with the highlight being a second-and-26 conversion with a 29-yard run.

In hindsight, the early KR talk was simply deference to veteran A.J. Dillon and Shipley, who were Barkley's in-house backups through the spring and summer and really did nothing wrong.

However, neither incumbent has the kind of juice Bigsby has a runner. More so, Bigsby is under contract at a cost-effective rate through 2026.

Backup RB Shuffle

Philadelphia Eagles running back Will Shipley (28). | Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

There is still room for a layered approach with Shipley, who remains the team’s best pass-catcher out of the backfield and has worked hard to improve his pass protection to the point he is a better option over Barkley or Bigsby in that realm right now.

However, if Barkley misses a game or two and the Eagles need a volume runner, that’s obviously going to be Bigsby.

“In the short time we’ve had him, his explosiveness is evident,” offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo said. “You can see it in practice, whether it’s drills, team periods, whatever he was doing.

“You knew he had it.”

And now everyone else knows.

“We had watched tape on him before, so you could definitely see [the explosion],” Patullo said. “To see it in person was obviously a little bit different, but it was exciting.

“It just adds another element to our offense, another dynamic player that, if Saquon needs to blow and he gets tired for a second, we can go back out there with Tank and keep it rolling.”

The one concern and the reason the Jags moved on from a back that ran for 766 yards at 4.6 yards per carry last season is ball security, so that’s something to keep an eye on.

Meanwhile, Dillon looks like the odd man out in the backfield, especially considering the Eagles are going to need roster spots for the impending returns of Jakorian Bennett, Brandon Graham, and Nolan Smith.

Philadelphia currently has one open roster spot, but would need to create two more to add all three players.

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