Miles Sanders Becoming Eagles' Workhorse

Rookie running back hasn't shown any signs of slowing down as his touches approach the same number he had last year with Penn State.

PHILADELPHIA - Miles Sanders was getting ready to play in the Citrus Bowl with his Penn State teammates at this time last year.

By getting ready that meant practicing, but probably mostly hitting the recharge button mentally and physically. Sanders had about five weeks between the final regular-season game and the bowl game against the Kentucky Wildcats.

Sanders doesn’t have that luxury of time off as an NFL rookie. 

So far so good for him, though, coming off his most productive game as a pro in Sunday’s 37-27 win over the Washington Redskins. Sanders had 122 yards and a touchdown rushing and 50 yards receiving and another touchdown.

At Penn State in 2018, Sanders had 244 touches, with 220 of those coming in the run game and just 24 in the pass game.

Sanders, who had 25 touches on Sunday, is already up to 192 this season with two more games to play, and there is no five-week rest period like there was in college.

He has 150 carries for two touchdowns and 687 yards, which broke LeSean McCoy's 2009 record for yards in a season by an Eagles rookie. Sanders has 42 catches for 433 yards and three touchdowns.

The total yards from scrimmage of 1,120 is also a team record, breaking DeSean Jackson's mark of 1,008 set in 2008.

The Eagles believe Sanders is fine physically and mentally despite the heavy workload heading into Sunday’s do-or-die game against the Dallas Cowboys.

“You try to gauge where he is physically,” said Eagles offensive coordinator Mike Groh on Tuesday. “It's late enough in the year, his stamina is excellent right now. He's in really good game shape. He's played a full college season now. He's really not a rookie anymore.

“He's prepared, we talked about this, how the guy prepares, how seriously he takes it in all phases. He is doing a lot of different things he probably wasn't asked to do in college, where he has to be on his game, on every snap. He's done a tremendous job.”

In actuality, Sanders’ touches are probably higher than the team would like. 

Jordan Howard was the team’s leading rusher coming out of the Eagles’ win over the Chicago Bears, but Howard was also hurt coming out of that game and hasn’t played since with a stinger.

“He was still going to be a big part of what we were doing offensively,” said Groh. “We still knew he's one of the guys that we need to feature and get the ball to. His ability to turn short runs or short throws into long runs, whatever the case may be, is impactful.”

Lately, the Eagles have begun to add Boston Scott to the mix. Since not having a role in back-to-back games against Seattle and Miami, Scott has run the ball 16 times in the last two games for 85 yards and a touchdown. He has also added 13 catches for 108 yards.

“With Boston balling out, we have a nice rotation going on,” said Sanders, “but I know the role I have right now and I’m just doing my job each week trying to get a ‘W.’”

Right now, that role is the Eagles’ workhorse on offense and, with two games left, he hasn’t shown any signs of letting the burden become too great.