Philadelphia Eagles: Jordan Howard’s improbably impressive 2021 season

The Philadelphia Eagles‘ midseason transformation from a pass-happy offense to the NFL’s premier rushing attack took many a fan by surprise.

On paper, the team was built to win through the air; they’d drafted four wide receivers over the two previous drafts, including two in the first round, and explicitly hired a head coach who cut his teeth coaching pass catchers. With only three running backs on the opening day roster versus eight wide receivers/tight ends, folks expected to see a competently crafted aerial attack that took advantage of every inch of the field.

Instead, the Eagles’ passing offense was overly simple, easily diagnosed, and almost exclusively relied on three or less wide receivers without a ton of creativity. Sure, Jalen Hurts and company still put up numbers through the air, but much of that production came in garbage time and only made losses look closer than they really were.

If ever a team was heading towards a midseason meltdown, it was the Eagles, but that just didn’t happen. No, Nick Sirianni rolled up his sleeves, cracked his knuckles, and rebuilt his offense around the concept of winning the time of possession game with a strong commitment to running the ball.

Sounds improbable, right? If I hadn’t covered it, I wouldn’t have believed it either, but let me tell you, Sirianni generated late-season Coach of the Year hype for a reason; he coaches his butt off.

But the Philadelphia Eagles’ success wasn’t on Nick Sirianni alone. No, it was truly a team effort, with everyone from Jeff Stoutland, to Landon Dickerson, and, most improbably of all, Jordan Howard stepping up to keep the offense rolling. *shakes head* and to think, the latter player didn’t even make the initial 53 man roster.

Jordan Howard’s bounce-back campaign was vital for the Philadelphia Eagles.

This time last year, things weren’t looking too promising for Jordan Howard.

Once considered one of the NFL’s brightest young rushers, Howard parlayed a relatively successful 2019 season with the Philadelphia Eagles into a two-year, $9.75 million contract with the Miami Dolphins, a contract he surely regretted almost immediately when then-offensive coordinator Chan Gailey suggested that he was a poor fit in Brian Flores‘ offense.

Despite amassing four touchdowns as a red zone specialist, Howard only ran the ball 28 times for 33 yards as a member of the Dolphins in five games of action and was released on November 16 to fully free up snaps for former seventh-round pick Myles Gaskin.

From there, Howard returned to Philly, but it just wasn’t the same. He wore 28 instead of 24, sat third on the depth chart instead of 1B, and only picked up 27 yards on seven carries over his two-game run.

Had the Eagles secured one of the premier power rushers in the 2021 NFL Draft, be that Najee Harris or Trey Sermon, or splurged a little bit on the free agent market with a power guy like Jamaal Williams, maybe Howard’s career would have ended then and there, but because Kenneth Gainwell is more Brian Westbrook than LeGarrette Blount, there was still a spot for the pride of UAB/Indiana in Philadelphia, at least for the summer.

Fully healthy from a late 2019 stinger that reportedly left the rusher without much strength in his arm, Howard’s game looked more like his first tenure with the Eagles than his disastrous run in Miami, and many an outside observer – hi – pegged him a borderline lock to make the opening day roster… at least until he didn’t.

But hey, it’s cool; Howard kept his head down, signed with the practice squad under the NFL’s new policy, and waited for an opportunity to run wild between the tackles once more.

That happened in Week 8, and run with it Howard did. Down Miles Sanders, Howard averaged 70.3 yards per game from Week 8-10 and finished out the season with 406 yards on 86 carries and three touchdowns as a full-fledged member of the Eagles’ active roster.

Will Jordan Howard improbably find a way back onto the field for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2022? Only time will tell, as the team has the resources to draft a solid power rusher in the forthcoming draft or could sign a younger rusher with more upside in free agency, but after turning in a horrible run in 2021 as a member of the Miami Dolphins, at least Howard received one final chance to prove he can go at the NFL level, even if he had to wait a little bit longer than he expected to earn that opportunity.