On Monday morning, the day after the Eagles’ 17-9 loss to the Seahawks in the Wild Card Round, Eagles rookie Miles Sanders was on crutches and had a brace on his left knee.
The 22-year-old suffered an MCL sprain on Sunday, according to league sources, but was still able to finish the game.
Sanders won’t need surgery and is expected to make a full recovery in time for OTAs in the spring to begin his second season.
The fact that he toughed it out on Sunday, though, is pretty impressive. Remember, Sanders missed the first two days in the practice week with a lower ankle sprain. So he played the entire second half with a sprained ankle and a sprained MCL.
In fact, seven of his 14 carries on the afternoon came in the second half, after the MCL injury. It appeared Sanders got hurt on the final play of the first half and then limped off the field into the locker room.
Sanders finished his playoff debut with 69 rushing yards on 14 attempts.
Coming into the weekend with the ankle sprain, Sanders said he never even thought about missing the game. “It’s playoffs,” he said. Sanders is one of several Eagles who battled through injuries late in the season.
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Overall, it was an impressive rookie season for the second-round pick out of Penn State. He finished the year with 818 rushing yards with three rushing touchdowns and another 509 receiving yards and another three scores.
Sanders broke the Eagles’ rookie record for scrimmage yards with 1,327 and led all rookies in the NFL this season.
Here’s a list of players to have 1,300-plus yards and six touchdowns in their rookie seasons in the last five years: Sanders, Josh Jacobs, Saquon Barkley, Leondard Fournette, Kareem Hunt, Alvin Kamara, Ezekiel Elliott and Jordan Howard.