Eagles biggest roster concerns entering the summer

Are these running backs good enough to help reduce wear and tear on Jalen Hurts?

They say a quarterback's best friend is a strong running game. That's an old saying but it still makes sense. Ask any of the new school passers. Heck, ask John Elway about how much easier his job got when some guy named Terrell Davis showed up.

Hopefully, Jalen Hurts will end his career being as decorated as Elway was. Hopefully, there's a little Terrell Davis in Rashaad Penny and D'Andre Swift. Heck, fingers are crossed that Kenneth Gainwell can continue building on the most recent postseason and that Philly figures out they can use Boston Scott can be utilized in some games that aren't played versus the New York Giants.

Jalen is a gifted runner, but if you haven't learned anything about these scramblers so far, we hope you have learned that it's the cumulative hits that often lead to the shortest of careers.

Being a great runner is one of the aspects of Jalen Hurts' game that makes him so brilliant. In 45 career regular-season games, 34 of which he has started, he has run for 1,898 yards on 367 career carries. 165 of those carries came during last season.

While no one wants to eliminate that aspect of QB1's game, no one wants to see him miss time because of injury either. Goal number one for the offense is keeping Jalen Hurts vertical. We'd like to see many of those runs often designed for QB1 be handoffs this season. The question is are Swift and Penny as good as we are hoping?

If so, no one should complain if they shoulder most of the load in the running game,