Eagles should still use combination of Jordan Howard & Miles Sanders

The Philadelphia Eagles are trending towards turning Jordan Howard into a feature back. However, Miles Sanders should still get work as well.

It comes as no secret the Philadelphia Eagles prefer to use a handful of running backs on game day, rather than relying on one guy. Ever since they traded away LeSean McCoy a few years back, the Eagles have stuck to their guns on utilizing a committee of rushers.

Sometimes it worked — other times, not so much. Last season, injuries to the backfield left the Eagles with no choice but to find out who the best rusher is and roll solely with them. For a while, it ended up being the undrafted free agent, Josh Adams.

Halfway through the season, Doug Pederson realized that the one-man band Josh Adams might’ve been more productive than the trio of Adams, Corey Clement, and Wendell Smallwood. Although Pederson eventually abandoned the ‘feature back’ style last season, it looks like he’s starting to trend towards rolling with that style once again.

Except for this time, he plans to do it with a proven running back in Jordan Howard.

Jordan Howard to get the bulk of the carries?

Eagles fans have been begging for this moment since the season started. As Jordan Howard averaged more than seven yards-per-carry during week one, everybody called for Howard’s number. Ultimately, he ended up only acquiring six carries in week one.

While the number has gone up since then, the Eagles still didn’t seem all that committed to Howard as the first quarter of the season progressed. The Week 4 matchup appeared to be a turning point, though. As the Eagles realized they needed to keep the ball on the ground in order to move the offense, they truly put Howard to work.

The former Chicago Bears rusher took on 15 carries for 87 yards and two touchdowns. Howard also flashed his slept-on pass-catching abilities with a touchdown in the air as well. While the Eagles shied away from using him once again the following week, Doug Pederson realized there’s a difference in the offense when they aren’t allowing Carson Wentz to go under center and hand the ball off to Howard to establish the run. Moving forward, Pederson looks to change that.

“It’s trending that way,” Doug Pederson said on Monday in regards to Howard getting a majority of the carries moving forward. Many believe that indicated Jordan Howard will be the lone feature back moving forward — but the Eagles shouldn’t go as far as entirely ditching their second-round pick, Miles Sanders this season. Instead, they should keep a healthy balance.

Miles Sanders should still have a role

While we loved the solo dominance of Howard against the Packers, the ‘thunder and lightning’ duo of Howard and Sanders worked quite well. Sanders might not be the quickest back for the Eagles, but he offers a change of pace from Howard, which makes the run game less predictable.

We saw how effective the offense could be when Howard and Sanders split the carries almost 60-40 in favor of Howard. While Sanders hasn’t lived up to his second-round expectations quite yet, he has still flashed the ability to rip off a solid run when the defense doesn’t expect the Eagles to keep the ball on the ground.

Plus, Sanders is much improved in the passing game and even pass protecting at this point as well. The idea to offer Howard more work is definitely a solid idea by Pederson — but the Eagles should definitley keep Sanders involved as the duo proved to be successful during argubly the best offensive performance by the Eagles this season.