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Darren Sproles Preparing To Play Wide Receiver

By Anthony DiBona

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After seeing his role reduced down the stretch this past season, Philadelphia Eagles running back Darren Sproles is taking on a new challenge. According to Tucker Bagley of Birds 24/7, Sproles is preparing to play some wide receiver on top of his normal duties at running back. While Sproles has always been a dangerous receiving option, he’s never played much wide receiver.

Sproles had just 40 receptions during his first season in the City of Brotherly Love, his lowest total since 2008. But with the additions of DeMarco Murray and Ryan Mathews to the Eagles’ stable of running backs, Sproles may have to play some wide receiver to see the field as much as he’d like to. Sproles started the 2014 season with 20+ snaps in five of the team’s first six games. Sproles suffered a slight MCL tear during the team’s week 6 match-up against the New York Giants and never saw the field consistently again.

But this switch to play a hybrid role like he used to be with the New Orleans Saints could be exactly what Sproles needs to see more snaps in Philadelphia. Despite playing only 343 total snaps this past season, Sproles was still the 7th highest targeted running back in the NFL with 40 receptions on 60 targets, according to Pro Football Focus.

Bagley offered more on Sproles’ potential switch to playing more wide receiver as well as some quotes from both Sproles and head coach Chip Kelly:

"During the open practices this spring, Sproles worked more with the receivers during individual drills, something he says will help him see the field more in 2015.“[The coaches] really want me to learn both positions,” said Sproles. “So they wanted [me] to work on my route running and some things like that.”Sproles played 29 percent of the snaps a year ago.Kelly was asked during the owners meetings in March whether he anticipated the Eagles being more creative in how they deployed Sproles this season.“Yeah, we do,” he said. “And it’s just acclimation. Also for us, and especially early in the year, he was our only other running back so kind of moving him around and putting him in different spots, you’re kind of holding your breath because early, I can’t remember if it was one or two games, our third running back was Trey Burton because Chris [Polk] was injured.“But obviously in Year Two, a lot more familiarity with what we’re doing, getting acclimated in terms of what we’re doing. We need to get him on the field more.”"

It’s especially worth noting how Kelly recalled Sproles being the team’s only other running back early in the season. That could very well again be the scenario in the upcoming season considering Murray and Mathews don’t exactly have the best track record in terms of health. But if they both can stay healthy, that would allow Kelly to use Sproles in a variety of ways. Likely similar to the role that Shane Vareen was used for during his time with the New England Patriots.

In fact, Sproles was actually a more dangerous weapon in the passing game than Vareen was in 2014. Sproles finished tied for 3rd overall (with Andre Ellington) in the NFL among running backs in average yards per route ran with 1.65. Only Le’Veon Bell and Fred Jackson finished with a higher average yards per route ran in 2014, according to Pro Football Focus

For comparison’s sake, Sproles average yards per route run was the same as wide receiver Torrey Smith and better than other “big name” wide receivers such as Sammy Watkins, Keenan Allen and Brandon Marshall…that’s impressive.

Clearly Sproles is a legitimate receiving threat and that’s never been much of a secret. But it’s certainly nice to see that both Kelly and Sproles would like to see him get the ball more in 2015. He’s a threat to score whenever the ball is in his hands and the team can definitely use that type of a threat. Hopefully this isn’t just all talk and Sproles is able to see the field more in the future than he did this past season.

Next: Philadelphia Eagles: Predicting Success For 2014 Draft Class

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