Beyond the Starters: Running Back

One of the Eagles deepest positions on the team has a mix of versatility with a whole lot of speed, and power not only in Lesean McCoy, but in Darren Sproles and Chris Polk who I will highlight today. Chip Kelly loves to run the football in his high up tempo offense clearly as the Eagles ran the football the most out of any team in the NFL last season. Although the Eagles ran the ball a lot, it was merely one guy taking all those carries in Lesean McCoy. To help take off McCoy's work load, the Eagles traded for Darren Sproles and will continue to progress now third year running back Chris Polk. Sproles brings a brand new type of weapon to the offense that can allow the Eagles to do a bunch of different things with formations and where McCoy and Sproles line up as they can both be on the field at the same time during some plays. Darren Sproles as a Saint lined up not only out of the backfield, but at wide receiver and also in the return game. The Eagles will look for him to do the same things as a big hole with those skills needed is open after the departure of Desean Jackson which has been the talk of the off season. During the NFL draft the Eagles traded Bryce Brown who was there backup running back drafted in the seventh round two seasons ago. Brown showed some impressive things during his stint with the Eagles, but he couldn't kick the habit of pushing runs to the outside and often had ball security issues. Chris Polk brings a more secure and steady role as the third running back, and with all the speed the Eagles have on offense, Polk will be the power back coming in during short yardage situations and possibly red zone plays. When being signed as a undrafted free agent out of Washington, there were concerns that Polk was already worn down and he would battle injuries throughout his career. Preserving him for the past two seasons has helped keep the running back healthy while bringing him along in a new offense which he showed that he can thrive in last season in the limited carries he had. The Eagles are in a great position at running back, Chip Kelly is going to do a lot of new and creative things with the backs on the roster that will make this offense even more dynamic than it already is which may seem as a impossible task. 

Beyond The Starters: Quaterback

Starting a new series of roster projections, we are going to give the backups some love. Starting at the quarterback position where the Eagles have no controversy and have their guy in Nick Foles. Yet with Michael Vick leaving, who is going to backup number nine? On the roster currently the Eagles have Matt Barkley coming into his second year in Chip Kelly's offense after a unimpressive rookie year, Mark Sanchez who is coming over from the New York Jets after starting his first four years with New York, only to get beaten out by default to rookie Geno Smith after a preseason injury for Sanchez. The Eagles liked Sanchez for his veteran experience, and playing in big games including two AFC championship appearances. Last but not least the return of G.J. Kinnie who was a training camp body last year, but did some good things in limited time during last season's preseason and beat out Dennis Dixon to make the practice squad. It would take a lot for Kinnie to beat out Sanchez or Barkley, unless a injury strikes of course (which we do not hope for). Both Barkley and Sanchez are familiar with playing against Chip Kelly in college as Barkley was the predecessor to Sanchez at USC. Both Quarterbacks will compete for the number two spot behind Nick Foles and right now in OTAs which may not be the best judgement of who is ahead of who but hey its June, Barkley looks like he is much more comfortable in Kelly's offense compared to last season, and is throwing the ball with a lot more speed and power to it. Sanchez has been solid as well, he has been throwing nicely helping rookie Jordan Matthews along throwing with him after practice everyday. This is why unlike a lot of Eagles fans, I like the signing just because of how young the other QBs on the roster are, and having playoff experience on the bench is a great bonus in case of a injury to Foles which I pray does not happen. So much for Kelly needing a mobile Quarterback on his roster eh? Currently on the roster I would not say that one of these guys is "mobile" granite Foles did score some rushing touchdowns last year and can move at the most necessary times, it just was a off season filler story because of how Kelly ran his QBs at Oregon. College football and the NFL is very different styles of offense which is why although it may have been necessary to have a mobile quarterback at Oregon, Foles, Sanchez, and Barkley have the right physical tools to run Kelly's offense. Oh and you to G.J. Knnie, I didn't forget about you!