Philadelphia Eagles: Tread lightly with Miles Sanders against the Giants
By David Esser
The Philadelphia Eagles shouldn’t overuse Miles Sanders against the Giants.
When he’s been healthy, Miles Sanders has without question been the Philadelphia Eagles best overall weapon this season. He’s logged 525 total yards in just 4.5 games (left Ravens game early), and he’s averaging 6.1 yards per carry. He broke off massive runs against both Pittsburgh and Baltimore, sparking the offense as they battled back to make the game close.
The problem, however, is that Sanders has struggled to actually stay healthy this year.
He’s missed three full games due to injury, and battled fatigue during the games he was active in. Despite his impressive numbers, Sanders clearly wasn’t 100%.
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The former Penn State running back has missed the last two games due to a lingering hamstring issue, but is expected to play against the New York Giants here in Week 10. While fans of the team were quick to cite Sanders’ return as the team’s saving grace, I’m here to caution otherwise. Despite Sanders’ projected active status this weekend, there was still uncertainty regarding what his level of fitness was over the bye. It wasn’t until late this past week that he was taken off the injury report, meaning there was at least some internal belief that he could miss the Giants game.
With that in mind, I see little reason to force Sanders back into an “every-down” type running back role against New York. For starters, he somewhat struggled in that role earlier on in the season. Like previously mentioned, Sanders had issues with fatigue during Weeks 2-5. He’s yet to log 25 touches in a game this year, and his carries dwindled all the way down to 11 against the Steelers. People were quick to blame Doug Pederson’s play-calling as the reason for Sanders’ lack of involvement, but the brutal reality is that Sanders just wasn’t in a physical position to command a larger workload.
Having Sanders back against the Giants definitely helps the Philadelphia Eagles, don’t get me wrong. He’s way better than Boston Scott, and he’s way, way better than Corey Clement and Jason Huntley. However, having Sanders split snaps with Scott is the best game-plan for this weekend’s NFC East battle. Not only has Scott historically dominated the Giants, but Miles could also likely use another week of rest before he’s ready to reassume the RB1 job.
With games against Cleveland, Seattle, Green Bay, New Orleans, and Arizona up next in the schedule; the Eagles are going to need Sanders to be on his A++ game if they even want a shot of winning.
Next. Philadelphia Eagles: 3 predictions for Week 10 against the NY Giants. dark
Sanders’ fatigue/injury issues are an entire discussion altogether, but at least for this upcoming game against New York, the Eagles coaching staff needs to air on the more cautious side of things when it comes to their star running back’s health. Sanders is still clearly beat up to an extent, and the Eagles undoubtedly need him 100% healthy for the remainder of the season. Considering the fact that is the Giants after all, and Scott seems to run well against them, I see minimal reason to force a 20+ carry game out of #26.