The Eagles haven’t taken a running back in the first two rounds of a draft since LeSean McCoy in 2009. And they haven’t had running back stability since McCoy was traded in 2015.
So maybe it’s time for the Eagles to find their next Shady.
On a conference call with reporters around the country on Monday, NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah was asked about which running backs from this draft would fit with the Eagles. And he even compared one of them to Shady.
He said the Eagles have “always placed a premium on being able to create explosive plays.”
It’s worth noting that Jeremiah used to work for the Eagles in their scouting department, and although that was years ago, he is probably still relatively plugged in to the thinking inside the building.
Here’s what Jeremiah said about two options:
To me, I look at a guy — you look at Darrell Henderson from Memphis, who's just got tremendous top speed and juice. He's somebody that can score from anywhere on the field. He's a little bit tight, but he'd be an interesting one.
Devin Singletary to me is — I have him as the second-best back, and actually for comparison, I wrote down he's got a little Shady McCoy to him. So he can make you miss. He does a great job in tight quarters. He could be in a hallway and you can't get a finger on him. Just real loose, nice little nifty jump cut that he uses. I don't know that he really has that big time, big time top speed, but we saw some of those same comments made about LeSean when he was coming into the draft, and we know how that worked out, so those are two of the guys I think would be pretty intriguing for the Eagles.
NFL
OK, comparing Singletary to McCoy is certainly eye-catching. Singletary is a 5-foot-9, 200 pound back from Florida Atlantic, who put up impressive numbers in his three years in college.
In those three seasons, he rushed for over 4,200 yards and 66 (!) touchdowns. He also showed his ability as a receiver, catching 51 passes for 397 yards. Singletary is looking like a true three-down back. For what it’s worth, Jeremiah’s NFL.com colleague Lance Zierlein compared Singletary to Charlie Garner.
As for Henderson from Memphis, I actually mocked him to the Eagles in my latest seven-rounder (see story). In his junior season at Memphis, Henderson rushed for 1,909 yards and 22 (!) touchdowns. He also caught 63 passes for 758 yards and eight scores in three years.
Jeremiah mentioned in his conference call that there’s no Saquon Barkley in this draft. The only true first-round running back is Josh Jacobs from Alabama. After that, there are several options in the second and third rounds. Guys like Singletary, Henderson, David Montgomery, Damien Harris, Benny Snell and Elijah Holyfield will all likely go in the second and third rounds. It might be time for the Eagles to get their guy.
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