D’Andre Swift Has Stood Out Amongst The RBs at Eagles Camp
One of the big battles in Eagles Training Camp is at RB. Not necessarily to see who makes the roster, those 4 guys are pretty much set in stone. But the question is who of D’Andre Swift, Rashaad Penny, and Kenny Gainwell would grab the RB1 role? But listening to the Eagles Beat Reporters, so far in camp the battle has not been close. D’Andre Swift is taking the job and running with it.
Tim McManus joined us earlier this week to discuss just how impressive D’Andre Swift has been, and the different way the Eagles are using him:
“Swift has stood out among the RBs. I think he is putting himself in a good position to be RB1 here. It is not going to be like last year where Sirianni declared Miles Sanders his guy and he had the large bulk of the touches… From week to week, it could change as to who has the most carries. But they are using Swift in a variety of ways. It is really easy to envision the offensive coaches getting excited about the multitude of ways they can deploy him. And therefore would want him on the field as much as possible.
Today we saw good evidence of the different things he can do. One where he broke up the middle, and had his best run of camp so far. He just found daylight, and he went for a good 50-yard gain. They also came back to him when he had a cross over the middle, hit him in stride, and he was able to take off from there.
Another really interesting play is where they had everybody rolling right. Then Hurts stopped and threw to the opposite side of the field to Swift racing down the left sideline. The play didn’t work. But the point is they are finding different ways to utilize him. That should be an exciting thing for Eagles fans. You haven’t seen a whole lot of dynamic in-game stuff out of the RBS to this point. But this season I think it could be different.”
As Tim said, we did not see the RBs get involved in the passing game too much last season. Kenny Gainwell led the Eagles RBs in receptions and receiving yards. But even he had just 23 catches and 169 yards. But D’Andre Swift has a chance to change that.
In 3 seasons with the Lions, Swift racked up 156 catches, 1,198 yards, and 7 TDs through the air. And that was with the QB play there not always being ideal. Now he joins a team that already has a dynamic passing game. And Swift could be the secret weapon that takes the offense to the next level. On passing plays teams already have to account for AJ Brown, Devonta Smith, and Dallas Goedert, all while keeping an eye on Jalen Hurts to make sure he does not take off. If you now add an RB who can catch the ball in space and make big plays? I don’t envy opposing defensive coordinators.