The Sean Mannion experience with the Philadelphia Eagles has been in full force over the last three weeks at OTAs, with this week the last, and fans in Philly are starting to understand what this unit will look like.
Over the past month, we have been hearing all kinds of changes to this offense, from the unit being under center more often to quarterback Jalen Hurts challenging more passes in the middle of the field. While the kinks are still being worked out, the potential is clearly there, but Bleeding Green Nation Eagles reporter Brandon Lee Gowton has noticed an interesting trend with the offense this spring.
"Feel like Jalen Hurts has thrown to Saquon Barkley a good amount this spring. More than he normally does."
Is Saquon Barkley about to go off in the passing game?
Over the last two weeks before mandatory OTAs this week, there have been a lot of reports of Barkley catching passes out of the backfield. Just last week, Hurts connected with Barkley on a long pass play.
Barkley was actually a good receiver and was used more often in the passing game during his days with the New York Giants. During his rookie season, he had 91 receptions for 721 yards and four touchdowns.
Since joining the Eagles, Barkley has never eclipsed 37 receptions, 278 yards, or two touchdowns. Philly has not been used to using running backs in the passing game under Nick Sirianni, but Andy Reid had Brian Westbrook and LeSean McCoy, and Chip Kelly and Doug Pederson had Darren Sproles.
This would be an interesting dynamic to the offense that could help open things up. It would be great to see Barkley get more involved in the passing game and to have him split rushing carries with Tank Bigsby to take the load off him.
Read more: Eagles' Nick Sirianni said it all with his response to A.J. Brown question
The question is, will Mannion actually follow this plan and have Barkley and the backs more involved in the passing game, or is this just him trying to figure out what works and doesn't work? Eagles fans wouldn't mind seeing this kind of change to the offense.
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