Philadelphia Eagles: For Jordan Howard, hard work pays off

When Jordan Howard re-signed with the Philadelphia Eagles earlier this year, it wasn’t because they presented him with the best deal or because he felt the team’s scheme best fit his style of play. No, the reason Howard is still in the Eagles oeuvre today instead of, say, the Detroit Lions or Washington’s still-unnamed football team is because no one else was really interested in his services.

Don’t believe me? Well, here’s the exact quote from the man himself (via Reuben Franks), “Honestly, my market was just pretty dry,” said Howard, who re-signed with the Eagles last month. “I was at the point I was having thoughts I might be done because teams weren’t really calling.”

Ouch.

And yet, almost one year to the day removed from being cut by the Miami Dolphins after a disastrously brief tenure, the Jordan Howard renaissance appears to be in full effect in South Philly, as he’s just been elevated to the Philadelphia Eagles’ active roster for his third tenure and is coming off a pair of impressive games that should keep him in the offensive gameplan even once Miles Sanders returns to the field.

Not too shabby for a 27-year-old has-been whose better days are behind him, huh?

Jordan Howard worked his way back into the Philadelphia Eagles’ future.

In five games with the Miami Dolphins last season, Jordan Howard rushed the ball 35 times for 33 yards and four touchdowns.

Outside of an incredible touch-to-touchdown ratio, those numbers are horrible and vindicated the Dolphins’ coaching staff’s belief that he was a poor fit in the team’s offense (more on that crazy story here). Considering the Dolphins had already paid Howard the guaranteed portion of his contract at signing, the team received no further benefit or restriction by keeping the former Indiana rusher on their roster once he fell out of the rotation and was ultimately released after the trade deadline to open up more carries for rushers like Myles Gaskin.

In only two games with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2021, Jordan Howard has already rushed the ball 29 times for 128 yards and three touchdowns, which, *spoiler alert* is much, much better, even in fantasy football.

So what gives? How has Howard seemingly rejuvenated his career and looked like the same player who initially donned a midnight green uniform back in September of 2019?

Hard. Work.

For one, Howard looks healthy. He’s running with a pep to his step that wasn’t on tape last season, and he just looks like the big-bodied, downhill forced that proved so hard to tackle back in Chicago. Howard has also, for what it’s worth, clearly remained engaged during his stint on the practice squad, as he entered his 2021 debut looking like a player who has been getting steady work on the active roster all season long.

Considering the purpose of a practice squad in, well, practice, is to run an approximation of an opposing team’s offense versus the first-team defense, that means Howard put in his own work to remain consistently ready for whenever his opportunity to contribute presented itself, even while playing the role of Ezekiel Elliott or Leonard Fournette.

Is it unfortunate that an injury to Miles Sanders got us to this point? Most definitely, but now that Nick Sirianni has found that running the ball unlocks his offense’s ceiling, that revelation should benefit Sanders too once he returns to the field in a few weeks.

Could we see a reunion of Philadelphia’s thunder-and-lightning attack of Howard and Sanders later this season? Not only could we, but I’ll take it a step further; if Howard and Sanders don’t combine for 25ish carries a week, something has gone seriously wrong.

Will Jordan Howard continue to average 64 yards per game over the remainder of the 2021 NFL season? Probably not. Once Miles Sanders returns, the Philadelphia Eagles will likely give him the majority of their rushing attempts, and Howard will only receive 14.5 rushing attempts per game in a run-heavy outing like the team’s commanding win over the Detroit Lions. But will Howard continue to have a role in the offense, especially in short-yardage situations and around the goal line? If Nick Sirianni is smart, he’ll keep that a fixture of his offense moving forward.