Miles Sanders surprisingly ranked as NFL’s top RB following Jets game

Remember when Miles Sanders was second-string to Jordan Howard in the Philadelphia Eagles‘ offense? We saw the talent early, but there were also concerns. They were minor but concerns nonetheless.

‘Man, if this guy could only stop dancing and hit the doggone hole’. That’s what we said. Sometimes, we felt like a two-yard gain could have been a five-yard scamper had he only decided on where to run a split second earlier.

There were other times in which we believed he failed to pick up what was available because he was fixated on his mindset of making the big play every time. Looking back, all of those statements were true, even if some of them seemed like they were contradictory to something that had previously been stated, but that’s seemingly the life of a young running back that has talent, realizes it, and will do anything to help his team win.

Miles Sanders is ranked as the NFL’s top running back following his week 13 performance.

There used to exist this theory that the running back position was the easiest in which a young NFL star could step in and have an immediate impact. Why? They’re given a little more wiggle-room to freelance.

Had he not run backward so often, Barry Sanders might have another 1,100 yards on his professional resume. Why do we love LeSean McCoy so much? As Lane Johnson said in his description of Jalen Hurts’ scamper to slam the door on the New Orleans Saints in Week 11, ‘he hit that L1 juke’ and, in Shady’s case, he did so often.

Sanders, may have a long way to go in being consistently compared to Barry Sanders, but there’s no shame in that, right? Who doesn’t? Still, Miles evokes memories of Shady McCoy in the same manner that LeSean felt like a throwback to Brian Westbrook.

Miles Sanders’ brilliance comes in the fact that, while there’s seemingly always something to criticize, he can make big plays at any time. He’s still one of the Eagles’ biggest home-run threats, but in Week 13 of the 2021 season versus the New York Jets, he helped spearhead a victory with more of a grind-it-out style.

For his efforts, he got some love from Pro Football Focus as their highest-ranked running back following Week 13’s slate of games. You need an Elite account to access the premium stats, but Sanders earned an overall grade of 80.9. He also made Fantasy owners happy, racking up 105 yards after contact as PFF Fantasy Football duly noted:

https://twitter.com/PFF_Fantasy/status/1467856603533783045?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1467856603533783045%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.audacy.com%2Fsports%2Fnfl%2Fpff-miles-sanders-ranked-above-all-other-rbs-in-week-13

So let’s revisit those comments that were made about Miles Sanders being demoted to third-string while he was injured and we were reintroduced to Jordan Howard and Boston Scott.

There are times in which we overreact to things that are the most recent occurrences in our short-term memories. Sure, there are times when it appears that Miles isn’t the greatest receiver out of the backfield. He’s put the ball on the ground too much, but with all of that being said, he’s still one of Philadelphia’s better weapons on offense.

If the Birds are all-in on battling their way to a postseason appearance, and there’s no reason to believe that they aren’t, Miles Sanders, despite currently trying to heal during the bye week after re-aggravating his ankle issue, is going to have to be a big part of the offensive gameplan.