Philadelphia Eagles: Is Miles Sanders a bell cow running back?

Miles Sanders is without a doubt the Philadelphia Eagles’ featured running back, but does he have what it takes to be a bell cow?

What exactly is a bell cow running back in 2020?

Is it a team’s lead rusher? An All-Pro performer? A player who teams put on their season tickets? Can a player be a team’s modern-day bell cow if they don’t catch the ball effectively out of the backfield? Can a player be a team’s bell cow rusher if they only catch the ball out of the backfield?

What even is a running back in the NFL anymore?

Lamar Jackson ran for 1,206 yards in 2019 and he plays quarterback. 17 teams in the NFL, including the Philadelphia Eagles, didn’t even have one 1,000 rusher in 2019, and yet somehow, the Baltimore Ravens had two, with Jackson outrunning Mark Ingram by 188 yards on 26 fewer carries.

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Of the 15 running backs who rushed for over 1,000 yards in 2019, only two, Derrick Henry and Ezekiel Elliott, did so on over 300 carries. While all 15 accounted for at least 50 percent of their respective team’s total carries, five of said players had to share the backfield with at least one rusher with over 100 carries. Ingram had to share touches with two other 100 carries rushers in Jackson and Gus Edwards and his team just effectively drafted his replacement, J.K. Dobbins, in the second round.

The NFL is a cruel, cruel world to running backs regardless of age.

Marlon Mack broke the century mark for the first time in 2019, and the Indianapolis Colts thanked him for his services by drafting his replacement, Jonathan Taylor, in the second round. The same thing happened to Jordan Howard in 2018, and he’s now on his third team in as many years. Unless you’re a do-it-all rusher/receiver like Christian McCaffrey, or a lowkey genius like Elliott who squeaked out a massive contract despite having very little leverage on his team, the chances of sticking around for a decade in the NFL on the same team are slim.

Need proof? Look no further than Todd Gurley, who went from NFL Offensive Player of the Year to cap casualty in two years.

So, with all of that being said, where does Miles Sanders fit into the 2020 NFL running back landscape? Is he the next Elliott, McCaffrey, or Saquon Barkley, or will the Eagles be lining up to flip a mid-rounder to Frank Reich and company for Mack later this summer?

I… hmm.

On one hand, Sanders has never really been a long-term full-time running back in either college or the pros. He split time with Barkley for his first two years at Penn State before a lone-1,200 yard rushing season in 2018. And as a pro, well, you know what he did as a pro – he split carries with Howard for the first nine games of the season, had a few weeks as the Eagles’ unquestioned number one rusher, and then went right back to filling a committee role alongside practice squad elevatee Boston Scott.

Darren Sproles and Jay Ajayi combined for 27 carries too, if you’re a completionist.

Still, despite only receiving 20 carries in a game once, one week after his only 100-plus yard rushing performance, Sanders led the team in all-purpose yards with 1,327.

That’s more than Zach Ertz, Dallas Goedert, and every other player on the Eagles roster.

Sanders’ 818 rushing yards are the most by an Eagles back since LeSean McCoy in 2014, and his 509 receiving yards were more than every single wide receiver on the roster in 2019. If you’re looking for a mid-key breakout candidate to blow up in Fantasy Football this fall, Sanders is probably your guy.

Barring the addition of a player like Mack to hog up the early downs, or Scott developing into the next Sproles with a full offseason of seasoning as a surefire member of the 55 man roster, Sanders is going to be one of the Eagles’ top offensive weapons, maybe even their top offensive weapon over Ertz.

But is that something the Eagles even want? Granted, they traded for Howard before drafting the Penn State product, but the Birds, and Andy Reid teams in general, typically utilize a running back-by-committee approach over a single bell cow back. The Eagles did allow LeGarrette Blount to walk in free agency in 2018 to give Ajayi the reigns as the team’s top rusher, but that ended less than a month into the regular season when he suffered a season-ending injury in Week 5 against the Minnesota Vikings. Would – and should – the Eagles really risk having to rely on a trio of Scott, Elijah Holyfield, and Corey Clement for an entire season?

At that point, you’d kind of have to trade for a player like Mack, right?

Sanders is unquestionably a great running back. If the Eagles want to, he could easily rush for 1,000-plus yards on 250-plus carries and potentially give McCaffrey a run for his money as the top all-purpose yards earner in the NFL. However, based on the Eagles’ draft strategy, loading up on speedy receivers to spread out the field, that may not be Pederson’s plan. Still, Sanders is such a good fit for pretty much everything the Eagles like to do, whether that’s running in a zone scheme, catching passes out of the backfield, or executing an RPO offense, that it’s hard to root against him.

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To put it simply, Miles Sanders is a bell cow running back, but only if the Philadelphia Eagles want him to be.

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