Eagles Running Back Plan? Listen to the Hints

The Philadelphia Eagles will use a committee in the backfield if they need to ... but it's clear the goal is to get someone to seize the job.

PHILADELPHIA - Running back and the plight of the position has been the story around the NFL since the deadline came and passed for franchise options like Saquon Barkley, Josh Jacobs, and Tony Pollard to get longer-term deals.

The Philadelphia Eagles have been ahead of the curve on the devaluation of the position as a whole and simply allowed their leading rusher, Miles Sanders, to walk after a career-best 1,269-yard season.

The plan forward was a “Moneyball” approach in which Eagles GM Howie Roseman essentially built an entire running backs room for what the Carolina Panthers gave Sanders.

In Philadelphia, there’s great optimism that something will hit behind what is the NFL’s best offensive line, and with a quarterback in Jalen Hurts who makes backs better by manipulating the spacing and discipline of the defense with his own impressive running skills in RPO looks.

Tune into Philly sports radio and you might hear that D’Andre Swift is going to be a star or that Rashaad Penny is finally going to stay healthy and turn into what he should have in Seattle. Another caller might inflate Kenny Gainwell’s late-season run as the second-coming of Austin Ekeler or ponder why can’t Boston Scott turn his weird success against the New York Giants into torturing everyone else.

Opinions are like you know what and everyone’s got one but the reality is that for all of his faults, none of the potential options for the Eagles are Sanders, who produced at a Pro Bowl level last season.

So assuming that Roseman’s correct assumption that Sanders was not worth the contract he got from Carolina and the gang of four will equal the same efficacy on the field for the Eagles that Sanders provided are two different subjects.

Wild theories on load management to save Penny for big games or using Gregg Popovich-like rest days are just that

The Eagles do believe in player maintenance more than just about anyone else in the NFL but that takes place during the week not on game days for a sport that only allows you 17 times to compete.

Nick Sirianni gave a few hints about the situation in a wide-ranging interview with reporters in advance of the kickoff to training camp.

“I’m OK having a committee, I’m OK with one guy getting the carries, too, I really am,” Sirianni said. “Whatever’s working, whatever's going.”

Forget the idea of discipline and strict adherence to it. The hot hand is going to win each week.

“We’ll say at times we’re going to go here and then a guy gets hot and we'll roll with him,” the coach noted. “For example, Kenny in the playoffs a little bit last year, he got more touches than he had gotten because he was running it really well. I’m content with whatever’s working and playing the best guys.”

What Sirianni left out there was that Sanders was banged-up late, first playing through a knee injury with a bulky brace and then hurting his hand on the first play of the Super Bowl.

Everyone has heard the NFL cliche of “if you have two quarterbacks, you have none.”

Occasionally even that is untrue when it’s Joe Montana and Steve Young or Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers. The real crux behind the sentiment is you don’t want uncertainty.

The modern NFL requires more than one running back but the idea of a full-blown committee is just that. Each team wants a lead back and then others to fill in roles whether it’s a change of pace if you have a legitimate three-down player or piecemealing out third downs and hurry-up roles if need be,

Call it what you want. If a lead back, an RB1, or a bell cow is not identified that’s not a good thing. Randomness never is.

For now, Sirianni is playing both sides of the fence because he has to but the head coach isn’t really straddling it. He knows what side he wants his feet to rest on.

“ I love the depth that we have to be able to rotate guys and keep guys fresh. I like when you have a guy that can do all of it, I like when you have a guy that you can segment it,” Sirianni said. “There’s so many different ways to do it. ... You’d love for all the guys to be able to do every one of them – but you just need them to, hey, how do we get this, this, this, this, and this done. Well, he can do this, he can do that, he can do this, this guy can do that one too. … I don’t really care how it happens as long as those boxes can be checked.”

The problem with that thinking is obvious. 

If Penny checks one box, Swift another, and Gainwell a third, you’re becoming very predictable to opposing defenses, one in which you have to play the trend-busting game by forcing players into boxes they don’t check.

Take the hints. The Eagles want a lead back and will spend the summer defining who that is.

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-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Football 24/7 and a daily contributor to ESPN South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen