Why Philadelphia Eagles Should Turn to Rashaad Penny, Bench Kenneth Gainwell

With Kenny Gainwell's halftime social media transgression and underperformance, the Philadelphia Eagles should give forgotten running back Rashaad Penny a chance

PHILADELPHIA - They talked to Kenny Gainwell about his cell phone usage during halftime on Sunday.

Words are nice, and that’s a good first step.

The second step is the more difficult one, and that is parking the running back on the bench for a game. Maybe it’s not that difficult, given Gainwell’s mostly underperformance this season so far for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Whatever the case, it’s time to give Rashaad Penny a run - pun intended.

Penny has been the forgotten man for the 7-1 Eagles. He has added all of three carries to his resume, perhaps something that is easy to forget even happened since they were uneventful and happened all the way back in Week 2 when he gained nine yards on those carries against the Minnesota Vikings.

He was active in Week 3, but never saw the field, so the Eagles made him inactive for the last four weeks.

It certainly isn’t what Penny had hoped for when he signed a one-year deal in the offseason, just like the role linebacker Nick Morrow isn’t what he thought it would be when he arrived in the offseason, something he admitted last week.

As for Penny, the Eagles could use uneventful right now, with a good chance of being eventful.

Penny is that.

Rashaad Penny / USA TODAY

In case you missed it, Gainwell fumbled from the 3-yard line in a game the Eagles trailed at the time, 14-3, against the Washington Commanders on Sunday. At halftime, he got into an exchange with a fan on social media who wrote, “Hold onto the football you f*** bum.”

Gainwell replied: “Lil boy don’t text me.”

A screenshot of the exchange surfaced, and it got back to the Eagles and head coach Nick Sirianni.

“We talked to Kenny about that,” said Sirianni a day after the Eagles came back to beat the Commanders, 38-31. “These guys have some time away from us when we get into the locker room where they sit down at their locker. They do whatever is going to take their mind and just calm it.

“This is part of these guys' lives, is some of that stuff. He's sitting at the locker. Should he respond to somebody that’s DM’ing him? No, he shouldn't respond to that guy or that girl at all.”

Responding to a fan at halftime is an interesting way to calm the mind. In fact, it’s illegal, per NFL rules.

Late last season, the league sent a memo to coaches and players reminding them that it is not permitted to use, wear, or possess electronic devices that aren’t issued by the NFL.

As pointed out by Pro Football Talk, Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt was fined after saying he checked his cell phone in Week 18 of the 2021 season to see if he had been credited with a sack that would have given him the single-season record in the category and the 2022 memo said players can be fined the minimum amount of $5,305 for an infraction.

Gainwell will likely be lighter in the wallet as well, but who cared about the money side of that except for Gainwell, of course?

The bigger issue is the distraction it caused and how the running back let the outside noise get to him. Sirianni talks all the time about not worrying about that stuff and focusing on the job at hand.

Gainwell should be taught a lesson and his playing time revoked for at least one game and that game should be on Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys at Lincoln Financial Field. The Eagles will head into their bye week afterward and have time to revisit the situation.

For the season, Gainwell has 153 yards rushing, one touchdown, and an average of 3.0 yards per carry. He has added 14 catches for 73 yards.

That doesn’t seem good enough for a No. 2 back behind D’Andre Swift.

It is time to see if Penny can do better and now the Eagles have a reason to give him a shot after Gainwell lost focus on the game thinking social media was more important in the moment.