Philadelphia Eagles: Boston Scott is being criminally underutilized

Do the Philadelphia Eagles know how good Boston Scott is?

When Boston Scott takes the field against the New York Giants, you can pretty much guarantee something good is going to happen for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Since making his NFL debut in Week 18 of the 2018 NFL season, against

fittingly enough the New York Giants

the irrelevant-to-this-conversation Houston Texans, Scott has played the Giants four times. In those games, Scott has picked up a combined 432 all-purpose offensive yards – 222 on the ground and 210 as a receiver.

Just for context, Scott only has 735 all-purpose offensive yards to his name period through his first 22 games of the season, so those 432 yards account for *checks math* 58.7 percent of his total production as a pro.

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58.7 percent. Wow, that’s really something.

While this sort of production could, and rightfully should, earn Scott the designation of ‘Giant Killer’, a term typically saved for the likes of Jake Elliott, DeSean Jackson, and AEW’s Cody Rhodes, the sheer level of production against New York’s less bad football team is both a blessing and a curse.

It’s a blessing because, well duh. Scott’s Eagles have won three of their four games against the Giants since he joined the squad at the end of the 2018 season and has been the team’s top performer in virtually all of said contests. He’s also scored a touchdown in every game he’s played against the Giants, a matter that only heightens his legend against the other professional sports team named the Giants when you consider he’s only scored six as a pro.

If Scott played like he does against the Giants in every game, he really would be the player Darren Sproles was during the first half of his tenure with the team, or the player Howie Roseman thought he drafted when he traded up to acquire Donnel Pumphrey in the fourth round of the 2017 NFL Draft.

Personally, I blame that on the Eagles’ coaching staff.

As you may or may not have noticed, the Eagles haven’t exactly been consistent with their running game as a whole. Over the first nine games of the 2020 season, the Eagles have only run the ball 216 times per game versus 331 passes – good for a 59:41 run pass ratio. By contrast, teams playing the Eagles have run the ball 275 versus only 306 passing attempts, for a much more reasonable 47:53 run pass ratio.

Is one option necessarly better than the other? No, but as a general rule, a 50:50 run pass ratio is considered the gold standard for an NFL offense.

To make matters worse, outside of Scott’s three starts against the Giants, Cowboys, and Washington – the NFC East trifecta, if you will – the 5-foot-6 rusher out of Louisiana Tech has only received 77 offensive snaps from Weeks 2-6 combined.

77 snaps? Seriously? Didn’t the Eagles explicitly opt against signing a veteran rusher to back up Miles Sanders because they were so content with their internal depth? If that’s the case, why is Scott averaging less than 27 offensive snaps per game through the first half of the season?

Obvious answer: The coaching staff.

I mean think about it, the Eagles’ offense used to thrive on the optionality presented by Darren Sproles before his career went off the rails in 2017. For a time, one could have easily made the argument that Sproles was the team’s best rusher, receiver, return man, and even pass blocker coming out of the backfield. While Scott hasn’t proven himself to be that level of performer, he possesses a similar offensive versatility and thus can challenge an opposing defense in a similar way.

If the Birds’ offense showed even a little bit of creativity, they’d easily be able to utilize Scott’s unique skill set as a change of pace rusher behind Sanders or *gasp* maybe even on the field at the same time. Remember the Pony, a two-back look the Eagles desperately wanted to use with Sproles and Pumphrey? Why not dust that old thing off and see if it has anymore giddyup left in the saddle?

Honestly, it’s not like the team’s offense couldn’t use a little more creativity. All you need to do is look at how Doug Pederson has opted to ‘utilize’ Jalen Hurts – if you want to call it that – through the first half of the season. The last time I checked, he has more fumbles than passing attempts through the first nine games of the season.

In an ideal world, Boston Scott deserves 10-15 touches a game. Will he ever actually get 15 touches in a game, especially if Miles Sanders is active and thriving? Not likely, which therein lies the problem. In one of the strangest developments of the 2020 season, it would appear the Philadelphia Eagles’ coaching staff has forgotten how to put their players in the best positions to thrive, with only the supremely talented or hyper-adaptable able to shine through this otherwise bleak, uber-2020 season that just can’t seem to relent. Above all else, that may be the most disappointing development of an incredibly disappointing season.