Philadelphia Eagles: Miles Sanders receives high praise from his peers

35 Philadelphia Eagles were asked to name their breakout candidate for the 2019 NFL Season. Miles Sanders became the popular vote.

Last week, the Philadelphia Eagles wrapped up the final week of the summer. Being that it was week four of the preseason, not many starters did much outside of practice. Therefore, guys were more open to the media as the vibe at the Nova Care Complex was something like the calm before the storm, that is week one of the NFL regular season.

Philadelphia Eagles beat writer, Bo Wulf, of The Athletic decided to run a locker room survey at the end of camp to try and figure out who the Eagles likely breakout player for the 2019 season is. Back in the spring, Wulf ran the same survey, and the popular vote went into the second-year tight end, Dallas Goedert’s favor.

For the end of the summer vote though, the sophomore tight end didn’t catch them all. Instead, it was Philadelphia Eagles rookie running back, Miles Sanders. Back in April, the Eagles made the Penn State product a second-round pick. Sanders became the highest-drafted running back for the Eagles since the 2009 offseason when they selected LeSean McCoy.

Sanders meets the pressure

From the jump, Sanders had a ton of pressure on his back. And when it came to the spring portion of the offseason, he failed to meet expectations right away as he was sidelined for the entirety of OTAs due to a hamstring issue. Fortunately, his month-long summer vacation gave him the time he needed to rest up so he could return to training camp while healthy.

Sanders was cleared to participate right away for his first NFL training camp, and well, he got off to a hot start. Many mentioned that he ‘runs different’ in comparison to other backs on board. And midway through August, predictions started rolling in pertaining to which week of the regular season Miles Sanders would take over as the Eagles starter.

The media saw it. The fans eventually saw it. And now the players within the Eagles locker room have confirmed that they definitely saw it as well. Out of 35 players, eight gave a straightforward answer stating that Sanders was going to be the guy who has a big season.

“Explosive young player. Don’t nobody know about him, really,” DeSean Jackson stated when discussing Sanders. “Come on the scene and surprise a lot of people.”

To Jackson, Sanders’ unknown factor will play a big part in his potentially monster season. Defensive end Brandon Graham also believes the rookie running back is primed for a big year, as he relates to Sanders’ situation.

“I just love that he got this chip on his shoulder to prove his worth early.” Like Sanders, Graham was a high draft choice for the Eagles back when he was coming out of the Big Ten. While Philly wasn’t as excited for the Michigan defensive end as they are the PSU running back, Graham understands that the pressure is on Sanders to be a second-round standout from the beginning.