The second half of the NFL season has not gone as expected for the Philadelphia Eagles, who had lost three in a row before a 31-0 shutout win over the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday. Quarterback Jalen Hurts has taken a lot of the blame, especially after a five-turnover performance in the Week 14 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, but the run game has been underwhelming as well.
With running back Saquon Barkley only averaging 3.9 yards on 240 carries and ranking second to Hurts in rushing TDs (six), there is no reason for the Eagles not to use Tank Bigsby more often as a way to spare Barkley from the huge workload. Thomas R. Petersen of Breaking the Birds echoed those sentiments, noting that Bigsby is too good not to get more carries. Bigsby was physical and moved the ball really well on the scoring drive before the half, opening the door for a rested-up Barkley to come in and score the TD.
Barkley has proven to be one of the best at his position in the league, but if the Eagles really want him to be at his best and back up his career-high 2,005 rush yards and 13 TDs from last season, they should strongly consider giving Bigsby more snaps. If not, the Eagles could be making unwanted history once again, given that a similar situation played out in 2024 with the underutilization of current Pittsburgh Steelers running back Kenneth Gainwell.
The Eagles Need to Get Tank Bigsby More Involved on Offense
Bigsby's 36 carries are third on the team, behind Barkley's 240 and Hurts' (95), but Bigsby has 225 yards on a team-high average of 6.3 yards per carry, more than two yards better than Barkley and Hurts. Before Philadelphia's loss to the Chargers, head coach Nick Sirianni seemed open to making some changes amid the offensive struggles. While Bigsby should have been one of those changes, that was clearly not the case, with only two combined carries in the three games leading up to the Week 15 clash with the Raiders.
Since Bigsby was acquired in a trade with the Jacksonville Jaguars following Week 1, he has only had two games with more than five carries. He had a season-high 104 yards on nine carries in a Week 8 win over the New York Giants, and a season-best 17 carries for 57 yards against the Raiders, showing he is more than deserving of receiving additional carries the rest of the season. While he is still under contract for 2026 and there is still some time to change that, we have seen this happen with the Eagles before with Gainwell, and it is obvious how that has played out.
In his four seasons with Philadelphia, Gainwell never had more than 84 carries in a season and was held to 364 yards or less in each of those campaigns. Currently, he is experiencing career-highs in carries (93) and rush yards (451) to go along with six total TDs and 332 receiving yards. Even with the limited snaps during his time in Philadelphia, Gainwell has averaged more yards per carry than Barkley's 2025 output in four of his five seasons in the league and is currently 13th in the NFL with an average of 4.8 yards.
The Eagles have a difficult road trip to the Buffalo Bills (10-4) in Week 17 with a pair of games against the Washington Commanders (4-10) in Weeks 16 and 18, making for a favorable conclusion to their regular-season schedule. If Philadelphia wants to save its season and put its offensive struggles in the rearview mirror, lessening Barkley's carries and getting Bigsby more involved should be at the top of the list.
This alone will not answer all the problems facing this rushing attack, or serve as any guarantee of success. However, with Gainwell thriving in Pittsburgh, the Eagles should make it a priority to incorporate Bigsby more often and keep Barkley fresher for critical moments, or they could lose out on another key playmaker when all is said and done.