The Eagles on Friday rescinded their one-year tender to restricted free-agent running back Chris Polk, according to a source close to the team. Polk’s three-year tenure with the team is over and he becomes a free agent.
Polk never signed the $1.542 million tender. In the offseason, the Eagles signed Pro Bowl halfbacks DeMarco Murray and Ryan Mathews after dealing LeSean McCoy to Buffalo. The additions, coupled with versatile veteran Darren Sproles, pushed Polk way down the totem pole.
The team’s offseason program began Monday but Polk wasn’t permitted to report without signing the tender.
In his three seasons with the Eagles, two under coach Chip Kelly, Polk showed a knack for finding the end zone and making big plays on limited touches. He has eight total touchdowns on 76 touches, averaging a touchdown every 9.5 touches.
Last year, Polk rushed for four touchdowns on 44 carries and returned a kickoff 102 yards for another touchdown. In 2013, he ripped off a 38-yard TD against the Lions in the snow and caught a 34-yard pass against Dallas on a wheel route.
He’s also a red-zone specialist, with six of his seven rushing touchdowns scored from inside the 11-yard line and three coming inside the 5.
Injuries may have resulted in his light diet of carries and his inability to advance higher than third-string despite his flair for touchdowns. Polk was a record-setting workhorse halfback at Washington but went undrafted because of concerns about his shoulder, which he eventually had surgically repaired after his second season in Philadelphia.
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Polk missed nine games as a rookie with a toe injury and last year missed almost all of training camp and two games with hamstring injuries. In 2013, he played 15 of 16 games.