Philadelphia Eagles: Why did the New Orleans Saints cut Boston Scott?
The New Orleans Saints’ loss is the Philadelphia Eagles’ gain.
Boston Scott was by far the most impactful in-season addition to the Philadelphia Eagles‘ roster in 2019.
No offense to Greg Ward, Craig James, and Marcus Epps, but is it even really a question? In only 10 games of action, Scott amassed the sixth-most yards (449) and fourth-most touchdowns (five) of any player on the roster, despite only logging 186 offensive snaps. That’s the 18th most of any offensive player on the team, less than JJ Arcega-Whiteside, Andre Dillard, and even Mack Hollins, who wasn’t even on the team for the last month of the season.
While Scott’s exact role in 2020 is still a bit up in the air, as the Eagles very well may still add a veteran running back before training camp opens up, it wouldn’t be too surprising to see the 5-foot-6 sparkplug pick things up where he, and Darren Sproles, left off in 2019 as a do-it-all receiver/runner out of the backfield.
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As crazy as it would have sounded a year ago when he was understandably a longshot to make the final 53 man roster, Scott is a smart money bet to surpass 1,000 all-purpose yards this fall.
Boy, I would hate to be the team who cut that guy before he came into his own… oh wait, that actually happened.
As you may or may not know, the New Orleans Saints actually drafted the LA Tech product 201st overall in the 2018 NFL Draft. While the decision seemed somewhat superfluous at the time, as the Saints already had a dynamic pass-catching third-down back on their roster in a not-yet-superstar Alvin Kamara, I guess the idea of taking a value-priced ticket for the ‘the next Darren Sproles’ sweepstakes was just too good to pass up.
The Saints just re-signed Malcolm Jenkins when he became available earlier this fall, so clearly the team wants a re-do on the 2014 offseason.
Scott entered training camp behind Mark Ingram, Kamara, and 2016 seventh-round pick David Lasco – who was placed on the PUP list in July – and played about as much as you’d expect a rookie sixth-round pick buried behind two proven starters on the depth chart would. Through four preseason games, Scott caught three passes for 18 yards and ran the ball 25 times for 121 yards and a touchdown.
With Ingram sidelined for four games for a PED violation, the Saints signed Mike Gillislee to serve as their between the tackles specialist.
To add insult to injury, when the Saints did opt to elevate a running back off of their practice squad a few weeks into the regular season, they opted to go with Dwayne Washington, a 2016 seventh-round pick out of Washington who played the first two seasons of his pro career with the Detroit Lions.
So needless to say, when the Eagles reached out to sign Scott off the Saints’ practice squad in December of 2018, Sean Payton and company were more or less ambivalent to his exit. They had Kamara, Ingram, and Washington – who finished out his third NFL season with 27 rushes for 154 yards and no catches – why waste a roster spot on Scott? Heck, the Saints were even set on special teams thanks to the odd couple of Kamara and Taysom Hill; Scott was a luxury at best and ‘just a guy’ at worse for the 2018 Saints, if he made the 53 roster at all.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
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Boston Scott appeared in two games for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2018 and 10 games in 2019, where he served as the perfect foil for Miles Sanders down the stretch. A perfect fit in the team’s RPO-offense, Scott has the potential to become an Eagles stalwart the likes of which the team hasn’t seen since, well, since Darren Sproles filled the same role at a Pro Bowl level from 2014-18. And as for the Saints? Well, the Saints just signed journeyman receiver-turned-RB Ty Montgomery to add a pass-catcher to their backfield. Boy, if only they already had a homegrown, in-house youngster who could fill that role in, and more on the cheap. Oh well, the Saints’ loss is the Eagles’ gain.