There’s a problem here. The Eagles want to run the ball. A lot. And so far they haven’t been very good at it.
Through two games, Eagles running backs are averaging just 3.7 yards per carry, and that includes Saquon Barkley’s 42-yard run in the opener against Washington. The backs were 24-for-66 in the win over the Titans Sunday, just 2.8 yards per carry.
On 42 carries, the backs have just one run of 10 yards or more. The Eagles have just nine rushing first downs and Jalen Hurts has five of them. Among the running backs, Saquon Barkley has two, Tank Bigsby two and Will Shipley one.
Out of 42 carries by the running backs, 20 of them – 48 percent – have gone for two yards or less.
Even with Jalen Hurts’ 62 rushing yards on 12 carries, the Eagles rank 15th in rushing yards per game (112.5) and 17th in rushing yards per carry (3.9).
Barkley’s status remains up in the air after he suffered a stinger on the first play of the game Sunday. He returned for a few carries in the second half but had no success. Nick Sirianni had no update on Barkley’s status or MRI results when he spoke to the media on Monday.
Sean Mannion wants to run the ball, and the Eagles rank 11th with 28.5 carries per game. But his wide zone running scheme demands the offensive linemen get out on the edge, and so far it hasn’t been a good fit. Landon Dickerson couldn’t move in the opener, Cam Jurgens has struggled in both games and Drew Kendall battled in his first meaningful NFL start but has a long way to go to become a consistent force.
How much does the interior offensive line have to do with the Ealges’ struggles running the ball?
On Pro Football Focus’s run blocking grades, out of 98 interior linemen who’ve played at least 50 snaps so far, Jurgens ranks 76th , Dickerson 85th and Kendall 92nd.
How are you going to run the ball when there aren’t any holes?
The Eagles have good backs. We all know what Barkley can do. Bigsby averaged 5.9 yards per carry last year. And Shipley doesn’t play much, but he did have a 55-yard run in the 2024 NFC Championship Game.
“In the run game, like everything in football, it takes just collaboration from every piece,” Sirianni said Monday, after the Eagles improved to 2-0. “From coaching to playing. It’s not just on the backs or the o-line. I think when the run game’s going really well, people tend to say, ‘Hey, the backs and the o-line are doing really well.’ Well, it takes everybody. That is true, and then it also takes the tight ends and it takes the quarterback and it takes the wide receivers.
“So it is a full team effort and coaches as well, and we have to be better as a whole there. We’re going to continue to work like crazy to (do that). We’ve found ways to win the first two games, but we know we’re capable of being better in the run game.”
The Eagles face the Bears on Monday night at Soldier Field and then the Rams at the Linc and neither one has been very good against the run, so the opportunities will be there to kick start the running game.
The Bears are 26th allowing 4.9 yards per carry and 22nd allowing 122 yards per game. The Rams are 31st allowing 5.8 yards per run and 30th allowing 174 yards per game.
If the Eagles can’t get the running game going against those teams, I don’t know who they’re going to get it going against.
“I think there’s elements of it being close,” Sirianni said. “We are close. But it goes back to when you’re close, it’s never just one thing. It’s the entire group working as a whole. We have to be committed to it still and keep grinding away at it, but we know we have room to improve there in our run game.”