Philadelphia Eagles: 4 Ideas to improve their red zone offense
By Hunter Doyle
2. The Philadelphia Eagles have to find a power back.
Remember LeGarrette Blount plowing over defenders in 2017? It feels like yesterday when Blount was shoving Desmond King to the turf in Week 4, trucking Andrew Sendejo in the NFC Championship Game, and torching his former team in the Super Bowl. The Eagles miss that in their offense right now.
Blount was such an integral part of that season in short-yardage situations and just making second and third downs more manageable. Having him in the red zone specifically always gave the Eagles an increased chance to score. They could pound him up the middle or run play action because defenses had to stay aggressive and commit so many guys to the run to even dream of bringing him down. When a defense is already tired late in the game or at the end of the drive, no one wants to tackle a guy like Blount.
In 2018, the Eagles brought in Josh Adams who did a fine job when healthy. He was no LeGarrette Blount, but he exceeded expectations. Then, it was Jordan Howard that filled the power back role last season and that went pretty well until he missed the majority of the second half of 2020’s regular season. In just ten games, he had seven touchdowns all of which came in the red zone. Five of those seven scores came inside the five-yard line.