1 trait Philadelphia Eagles stars Boston Scott and Zach Ertz both share

There’s an interesting parallel between two Philadelphia Eagles.

As both athletes and as players, there may not be two guys on this Philadelphia Eagles roster that are more dissimilar than Zach Ertz and Boston Scott. The former is six-foot-five, tips the scales at 250 pounds, and is a west-coast product that cut his teeth in the Stanford Cardinal program. He was also one of the most sought-after players at his position when he entered the NFL in 2013.

The Eagles called Ertz’s name in the second round of that year’s NFL Draft. He was one of about four or five decisions that Chip Kelly actually got right.

Scott is clearly on the opposite end of the spectrum from Ertz physically as an NFL player can be He’s five-foot-six and 203 pounds, but he may be the superior athlete. Also, unlike Ertz, Scott is from the south, he’s a Louisiana product that played his college ball for the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs.

Scott’s development as a pro athlete mirrors Ertz’s in one way though. Early in his career, it appeared that Ertz had a lot of potential, but he saved some of his best games for the ones Philly played versus the New York Giants. There weren’t many but there were questions about whether or not he could be that good versus everyone else. Now, where have we heard that before?

Can Scott be sort of a Zach Ertz 2.0 for the Philadelphia Eagles?

If you just take what Ertz has done in the regular season, in 13 games versus New York, ’86’ has helped Philly to an 11-2 record. He’s caught 70 passes in those 13 games for 807 yards and he’s reached the end zone seven times. Oh, and by the way, he figured out how to terrorize the rest of the NFL as well.

Of Scott’s six career trips to paydirt (both rushng and receiving), his 358 yards rushing, and his 298 yards receiving in 20 career games as a member of the Philadelphia Eagles, 159 of his rushing yards, 199 of his receiving yards, and five of those six total touchdowns have come versus New York.

Now, there’s much that can be said about that. Miles Sanders missed most of Philly’s Week 17 game versus the ‘G Men’ in 2019. He missed the entire game in Week 7 of 2020, so yes, Scott got more touches in both of those contests. New York’s defense has also been abysmal as of late. Though we’ve seen a smaller sample size with Sanders available, the general consensus has been that, in those first six games of 2020, Scott wasn’t very helpful to the Eagles cause when called upon.

Does he have talent? He absolutely does! Has he been utilized incorrectly more often than not? You can make that argument too. One can also point to Doug Pederson’s playcalling as another issue, but here’s the skinny.

Scott is never going to be able to use any of that as an argument. People often won’t talk about Sanders’ absence, or Pederson’s playcalling, or how Scott is utilized. People are going to say he plays well against New York and no one else. Scott will be fine though. Count on it. History is on his side (sort of), but for now, his brilliance will have to extend past Philly’s games versus New York, at least until Miles Sanders is ready to go.