Philadelphia Eagles: Corey Clement could see a large workload this week

Corey Clement could be issued an extensive test in the backfield this week as the Philadelphia Eagles are short-staffed.

It’s only week three, and the Philadelphia Eagles are experiencing a ton of difficulties within their team due to injuries. As some guys are working to get their season started, other guys are expected to be out for the next coming weeks. While the main focus has been about the Eagles situation at wide receiver this entire week, not many people paid much attention to the thinness of the backfield.

Last week, Jay Ajayi left the field after the first drive of the game to head to the locker room. He was experiencing back pain, and it took more than half of the game for him to return to game action. Clearly, Ajayi wasn’t one-hundred percent, but he still fought through the pain and found the end zone as the Eagles worked on a comeback.

Despite getting back onto the field last week, it doesn’t seem like Ajayi will get to play on Sunday. He sat out from practice every day this week, and the Eagles aren’t too optimistic about him playing. As far as Darren Sproles goes, he is still working on nursing his tweaked hamstring from last week. Chances of him playing against the Indianapolis Colts this Sunday are also slim. That leaves the Eagles backfield with Corey Clement, Wendell Smallwood, and Josh Adams.

Big day for Clement?

We’ve heard all along that the Eagles were high on Clement as a lead back, despite him being No. 3 on the official depth chart. We knew that he wouldn’t win the majority of the carries over Ajayi, but we could assume that if Ajayi doesn’t re-sign at the end of 2018, then Clement is next in line to take over. There may still be some curiosity there about whether Clement can handle a large chunk of the carries or not, but this week is his first real test.

Last week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Clement took on six carries, for 30-yards, and a touchdown. Although he didn’t carry the ball much, he was averaging an impressive five-yards-per-carry. With Carson Wentz back in action, the Eagles offense should see a substantial upgrade. Although Wentz can’t do everything on his own, defenses will have to remain on their heels as they know about his impressive playmaking abilities.

It may not seem like anything significant at the moment, but what Clement puts on display this Sunday could realistically be a look of the future. It’s going to be reasonably challenging for the Eagles to lock in Ajayi with something long-term after this season, and Clement is the only player in the backfield that is sure to return after this season. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. Hopefully, Doug Pederson stays true to the run game this week if it is working to take a load off of Wentz.