Philadelphia Eagles: Carlos Hyde could be the new LeGarrette Blount

After failing to address the running back position in the 2020 NFL Draft, the Philadelphia Eagles could find their next great stopgap rusher in Carlos Hyde.

The Philadelphia Eagles entered the 2020 NFL Draft with eight picks. They left the weekend with 10 handpicked rookies, a speedy receiver in ex-San Francisco 49ers Olympic long jumper Marquise Goodwin, and the most athletic draft class in the league as per Next Gen Stats.

And yet, despite all of these additions, the Eagles’ roster still only has three running backs.

Okay, technically, that isn’t true, as the team added speedy UCF running back Adrian Killins as an undrafted free agent, but it seems unlikely that he’ll make the roster as anything more than a special teams-only return man.

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Unless Killins is willing to put on 50 pounds and grow a couple of inches, the Eagles may have to look elsewhere to find the thunder to pair up with the jitterbug lightning of Miles Sanders and Boston Scott.

Fortunately, there’s a free agent still on the open market that could produce quality results in Doug Pederson‘s offense for a season or two until the team is able to acquire their next young one-cut back: Carlos Hyde.

Measuring in at 6-foot, 229 pounds, Hyde came into the NFL as the 57th overall pick in the 2014 draft, heading west from the football haven of Columbus to trade in the scarlet and grey of the Ohio State Buckeyes for the red and gold of the San Francisco 49ers.

While Hyde struggled to produce early in his career as a part-time player – playing sporadically as a rookie and appearing in only seven games as a second-year pro due to injury – he finished out his final two seasons in San Francisco with at least 900 yards rushing and 1,100 all-purpose yards as the team’s unquestioned offensive focal point – just in time to hit the open market and cash in on a big payday.

Fun fact: Hyde’s final season with the 49ers was also the first, last, and only season Chip Kelly coached in San Francisco.

From there, Hyde signed a three-year, $15 million deal with the Cleveland Browns, played in four games, was traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars for a fifth-round pick, played eight games, was released, signed with the Kansas City Cheifs, and was traded yet again to the Houston Texans for the rights to 2018 third-round pick Martinas Rankin.

Exhausting, right? Imagine how it must have felt for Hyde.

However, despite being passed around like an AFC hot potato, Hyde had his best season as a pro in 2019 at the tender age of 29 – recording his first 1,000-plus yard season since exploding for 1,521 yards as a senior under the watchful eye of Urban Meyer in 2013.

And yet, despite having his best season as a pro in both yards per game ad yards per attempt, Hyde remains unsigned well into the month of April, with a slew of teams having addressed their running back needs in the 2020 NFL Draft – or in the Texans’ case, via trading All-World receiver Deandre Hopkins for David Johnson and a second-round pick.

But as these things so often go, Bill O’Brien‘s loss can be Howie Roseman‘s gain.

As Roseman has pointed out in a virtual interview with Dave Spadaro, the Eagles planned on addressing running back in the 2020 NFL Draft after failing to add anyone at the position in free agency. Furthermore, The Athletic’s Dane Brugler hypothesized that the Eagles might have been specifically targeting a bigger back to fill the voids left by Jordan Howard.

That logic tracks.

From Ryan Mathews in 2016, LeGarrette Blount in 2017, Jay Ajayi in 2017-18, Josh Adams in 2018, and Jordan Howard in 2019, the Eagles’ offense is at its best when it has a bigger back on the bench who can pick up four yards in a cloud of smoke between the tackles. Granted, the team hasn’t valued any of these players enough to give them a long-term deal, but that may be due to the violent nature – and short shelf life – of being a one-cut back.

Not great for fans who want to buy the jersey of their favorite player, but a sound strategy none the less.

Now I’m going to be totally honest with you; Hyde isn’t my favorite player in the NFL. Signing a 30-year-old running back seldom leads to good results, especially when said player isn’t much of an option as a receiver coming out of the backfield, but it’s hard to argue with his production in 2019. If he’s willing to accept a one-year deal, there’s a lot to like about Hyde as a short-term, stopgap player a la Blount in 2017.

The Eagles have mostly avoided this sort of player in 2020, as they were burned quite brutally by over-the-hill veterans in 2019, but once May 7th rolls around and veterans can be signed without affecting the compensatory pick formula, all bets are off.

Barring a surprise trade for a veteran runner, or an even less likely post-draft waiver claim of some young role player made obsolete by a high-profile draft signee, Hyde is probably the best option left on the market to provide interior rushing production.

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The Philadelphia Eagles have made their intentions known going into 2020. They want to play fast, they want to go young, and they want to build a sustainable, explosive long-term offense to complement Carson Wentz‘s arm and Jalen Hurts‘ exclusivity. However, the team can’t stray too far from their meat and potatoes zone-rushing game between the tackles. With only so many options left on the open market going into may, Carlos Hyde is the kind of player who could add yet another wrinkle to the Eagles’ offense, even if he’s only a part-time player at this point in his career.

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