Eagles running back Kenny Gainwell made a bad moment even worse on Sunday afternoon.
After Gainwell fumbled away the football in the tight red zone in the first half against the Commanders, he got into the visiting locker room at FedExField at halftime and fired back to a direct message from a fan. That interaction on Instagram was captured in a screen grab and shared publicly on social media.
The screen grab made its rounds and the Eagles coaching staff has since talked to Gainwell about the incident.
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“Of course we talked to Kenny about that,” head coach Nick Sirianni said on Monday afternoon. “These guys have some time away from us when we get into the locker room. Where they sit down at their locker and they do whatever’s going to take their mind and just calm it. This is part of these guys’ lives, some of this stuff. ... No, he shouldn’t respond to that guy or that girl at all.
“Yes, of course we’ve talked to him about that, to be locked in, to be focused and not focused on outside noise. And he knows he made a mistake responding back to that person.”
Gainwell, 24, is clearly the Eagles’ second running back option behind D’Andre Swift this season but some situations clearly still belong to Gainwell, including 2-minute drill and plenty of red zone work.
While Gainwell fumbled on Sunday, Sirianni brought up Gainwell’s 3-yard touchdown run against the Dolphins in Week 7.
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“I’ve got faith in these guys,” Sirianni said. “All right, Kenny had a fumble this week but he had an unbelievable run the week before against Miami. One reaction to a mistake, right, if we reacted the way sometimes maybe how people want us to react at times, then all our guys make mistakes. We wouldn’t have anybody to put in.
“We’d be putting in (quarterbacks coach) Brian Johnson to hand off the ball to (running backs coach) Jemal Singleton and nobody wants that. I still have a lot of faith in these guys and I still have a lot of faith in Kenny.”
The Eagles didn’t run the ball particularly well with anyone on Sunday in their 38-31 win over the Commanders. Swift had 16 attempts for 57 yards and a touchdown, while Gainwell had 2 for -4, but he did have 30 receiving yards, including a 17-yarder on the first drive of the second half.
On the season, Gainwell has played 36% of the Eagles’ offensive snaps, while Swift has played 60%. Gainwell has 153 rushing yards and a touchdown on the ground and has caught 14 passes for 73 yards.
Many fans have been clamoring to see more Swift in the red zone, where Gainwell has been getting a lot of work.
“Again, it’s not about, it’s not one man’s job to score touchdowns in the red zone,” Sirianni said. “You asked me about D’Andre and you asked me about Kenny down there. It’s us putting the players in positions to succeed, it’s the O-line leading the way and the tight ends leading the way on the blocks, it’s Jalen making the right read if we’re running the football down there.”
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