Philadelphia Eagles: Boston Scott is a modern day Renaissance man

Wednesday, February 2nd, was a great day for Philadelphia Eagles running back Boston Scott.

The day started off with a wonderful announcement for the 5-foot-6 rusher out of LA Tech, where he was named an official member of the Dignitas Rocket League team as a “sub and content creator.” Now, from what I gather, this is a pretty big deal for Scott, who has long been a fan of Rocket League dating back to a once again-relevant viral tweet, as he had to be one of the very best players in the world to qualify for the rank of ‘Grand Champion.’ With a solid four months off before the NFL season starts to ramp back up, the soon-to-be restricted free agent should have plenty of time to go for gold, or whatever the specific award is in Rocket League competitive play.

Then, Scott followed up becoming a two-sport athlete by traveling across the South Philadelphia Sports Complex to ring the bell before the Philadelphia 76ers game. While the game ultimately resulted in an ugly loss, Scott got cheered on by the home crowd, repped his new second team, and just generally looked like he had a blast.

Factor in Scott’s surprisingly solid guitar playing and affinity for golf, and the soon-to-be fifth-year running back is proving just how multifaceted a modern-day athlete can be, which is great, because 2022 could define the remaining course of his NFL career both with the Philadelphia Eagles and overall.

The Philadelphia Eagles are going to need to decide on a role for Boston Scott.

To call Boston Scott’s 2021 season uneven would be an understatement.

In September of 2021, Boston Scott was a non-factor for the Philadelphia Eagles. He ran the ball exactly zero times and only received two targets in the passing game on seven total snaps split over three games. That trend of Scott being a low-usage, almost exclusively special teamer extended well into the month of October, where he remained an offensive non-factor through Week 6.

Needless to say, things weren’t looking good for the player named after Philadelphia’s least-favorite city. Kenneth Gainwell had been given the team’s no-huddle/third-down back role, and Scott was relegated to Miles Sanders‘ primary backup, which, considering how often 26’s number was called, left very little opportunity for the Eagles’ shortest player to actually see the field.

And then, everything changed. Sanders suffered his first of two IR-worthy injuries midway through the Eagles’ Week 7 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, and just like that, Scott was thrust into the spotlight. He started the next three games, and even with the additions of Jordan Howard and the eventual return of Sanders, he earned at least six carries in each of the team’s next five and remained a fixture of the offense for the final month of the regular season.

In some games, specifically against the Broncos, the Giants, the Football Team, and the G-Men again, Scott looked great. He averaged 4.48 yards per carry and saw the endzone 1.5 times per game. But then, we’d see a game like the Eagles’ eventual loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Tom Brady’s final win in the NFL – where he only ran the ball one time despite taking it for 37 yards.

But why? As a change of pace rusher, Scott is an incredibly unique offensive weapon that gives big, lumbering defenders fits because of his low center of gravity and incredibly powerful lower body. A high school weight lifter, Scott can squat over 500 pounds and routinely uses that strength to power through holes between the tackles, where he is very effective in a zone-blocking scheme. While he may not have the traditional build of a power back, and a team would surely opt for a player like Iowa State’s Breece Hall based on his athletic measurables alone,  there is a spot for Scott in the NFL and in the regular runnings of an offense if a coordinator made it so; Nick Sirianni, or someone else, just has to make that a priority.

Will the Philadelphia Eagles give Boston Scott a contract in restricted free agency? Yes. They will all but surely give him at least the one-year, exclusive rights tender Alex Singleton played on in 2021 and may even give him a multi-year extension worth something like $6 million over two years. But in the grand scheme of things, that doesn’t really matter; for Scott to overcome his current status as a mid-bench reserve and have a prolonged career, he needs to find a role in the offense, even as a backup, that is consistent, instead of based on the injury status of the player in front of him. If that happens in Philadelphia, great. If that happens with, say, the New York Giants, that’s cool too, at least for him. And hey, if nothing works out and Scott goes down as one of those “could have been’s,” at least he has Rocket League.